A dying message from Hitchens an American Atheist

Hitchens, American?

He is an Amercan citizen now but were born in British.

See below.


Christopher HitchensFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
Christopher Hitchens

Hitchens speaking in 2010.
Born Christopher Eric Hitchens
April 13, 1949 (1949-04-13) (age 62)
Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK
Nationality American/British
Alma mater Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation Writer, journalist and pundit
Influenced by George Orwell, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Joseph Heller, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Salman Rushdie, Vladimir Nabokov, Richard Llewellyn, Aldous Huxley, PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Paul Mark Scott, James Fenton, James Joyce, Albert Camus, Oscar Wilde, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Martin Amis, Kingsley Amis, Ian McEwan, Colm Tóibín, Bertrand Russell, Wilfred Owen, Isaiah Berlin, Émile Zola, W. H. Auden, Susan Sontag[1]
Influenced Johann Hari,[2] Martin Amis,[3] Sam Harris[4]
Religion None
Spouse Carol Blue (1989–present)

Eleni Meleagrou (1981–1989)
Children Alexander, Sophia, Antonia
Relatives Peter Hitchens (brother)

Christopher Eric Hitchens (born 13 April 1949) is an English-American[5] author and journalist[6] whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008.[7] He is a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits and in 2005 he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll.[8][9]

Hitchens is known for his admiration of George Orwell, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson and for his excoriating critiques of, among others, Mother Teresa,[10] Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Henry Kissinger. His confrontational style of debate has made him both a lauded and controversial figure. As a political observer, polemicist and self-defined radical, he rose to prominence as a fixture of the left-wing publications in his native Britain and in the United States. His departure from the established political left began in 1989 after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left following Ayatollah Khomeini's issue of a fatwā calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie. The 11 September 2001 attacks strengthened his internationalist embrace of an interventionist foreign policy, and his vociferous criticism of what he called "fascism with an Islamic face." His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, while Hitchens insists he is not "a conservative of any kind."[11]

Identified as a champion of the "New Atheism" movement, Hitchens describes himself as an antitheist and a believer in the philosophical values of the Enlightenment. Hitchens says that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct," but that "an antitheist, a term I’m trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there’s no evidence for such an assertion."[12] He argues that the concept of god or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom, and that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining human civilization. He wrote at length on atheism and the nature of religion in his 2007 book God Is Not Great.

Though Hitchens retained his British citizenship, he became a United States citizen on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial on 13 April 2007, his 58th birthday.[13] His latest book, Hitch-22: A Memoir, was published in June 2010.[14] Touring for the book was cut short later the same month so that he could begin treatment for newly diagnosed oesophageal cancer.[15]

Bloody hell, I didn't ask for all that. I'll take your word for it, he's an American

Sorry, just had a closer look at the Wikipedia reference. You never said he was a Skate. You can keep him, we've got enough Skates over here as it is.

He is a mixed of both sides of the pond.

He may be mixed but he's still a Skate. We've got enough Skates thanks

Do you mean that he is from Portsmouth and if so so what?

I am missing soming here it would seems.

Noun. A person from Portsmouth. Derog. [Mainly Southampton use]

You're almost there. As in the Simpsons, the people of Springfield and Shelbyville hate each other. Similarly with Portsmouth and Southampton. I'm from Southampton. Portsmouth call us Scummers (highly original). We call them Skates because it's a well known fact that they all go out into the English Channel on fishing trawlers to shag fish. The skate in particular is a good fit because of the extra tiny genitalia to be found on people from Portsmouth. So if you find yourself aroused whilst watching Finding Nemo you may well have ancesters from Portsmouth.

If you're an atheist how can you support Sarah Palin? Was it that you realised there was no God when she first opened her mouth?

If

Sorry she is a low grade fool however I was just addressing the issue of a state governor knowing or not knowing off hand the name of the prime minister of Canada.

Canada is something Americans do not normally think about one way or another.

It this small little and peaceful country on our border that we do not pay attention to.

Or at least peaceful when the French Canadians are not making noises about breaking away if they do not get everything they wish for from the central government.

An interesting show indeed with some others provinces then making nosies about leaving Canada themselves for the US.

I don't think Canada's small. I thought it was second only to Russia as the largest country in the world. I'm so happy, we're winning 3-0. We're promoted to the Championship. That may not mean anything to you but I've been losing sleep over this.

It depend on how you measure size as in population it is small.

All I can say is leave it to an atheist to try to tell someone who and what God is. If you don't believe in God then you don't believe. If you do believe in God then you do.

No. I think we have discussed this before. Atheists are concerned about the adverse social effects of believing in "a God". They have no interest at all in the the details of what is for them a "non-entity".

For one thing a belief in a magical being is a form of mental illness that can and have lead to killing your children in some jungle by having them drink poison or killing doctors or trying to force nonsense to be taught in the public school as science.

Hell flying airplanes into buildings is another example.

So you never can tell what harm a believer might do it he/she come under the control of the wrong person claiming to be a spoke person of god.

Hitch will be missed. I appreciate his bravery.

A
R
T

It made me sad to read. Doesn't sound as if he feels very peaceful. He sounds preacherly, pedantic and fearfully in need of proving he had (or has if he hasn't died yet) a point.

I would hope I wouldn't feel the need to keep preaching on my deathbed. I hope I would feel more at peace than he sounds.
I feel sad for him and for those he loves that he had to keep making some sort of point right up to the end.
Can you imagine having to live with a guy like that. He can't even shut his mouth about it and contemplate something else- like the beauty of the world around him- while he's dying?

In reply, try and imagine on your death bed thinking about anything other than yourself. I think you are mistaken. He seems at peace enough with his situation. The only peace he lacks is the same peace we all lack together. It's the same peace we are supposed to work for after he's gone. Can you imagine being enough at peace on your death bed that your concern is using your dying platform to draw attention to worldly affairs and how we treat each other?

It is sad, he is dying, but I think you're projecting desperation and fear upon him.

A
R
T

I'm sorry about Canadian leadership. You were right, it's a premier not a president. How do you get on with being an atheist in America? It must be bloody hard work.

That's Skates for you.