Christopher Hitchens: Asshole, Genius, 62, Dead.

"The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more."

I can't imagine life without atheism. This doesn't come from fanatical devotion -- and the lazy assertion that atheism is in itself some kind of a "religion" is a major crock of shit and frankly, very tired -- but rather, there is only one way I see and experience the universe, and that is informed most strongly by philosophy which rejects the irrational. For me, it means making a better world. That's quite enough about me.

With that being said, one of the things I hate most is other Atheists. There are exceptions with some I know but otherwise, all these rare figures with whom I might have felt some measure of solidarity have been arrogant, pseudo-intellectual loudmouths (see: Glen Benton). There is something extremely prideful about this worldview; (and why shouldn't we be to some extent? By "we" I mean everyone and anyone.) and I do struggle with the feeling that I often find myself unwittingly arguing from a "nyah, nyah, nyah, you're all wrong," viewpoint so, mainly I keep my mouth shut and don't push my views on others for that very reason. There's a time and a place for that kind of discussion and while I'm completely enmeshed in a civilization with institutions, constructs, and intellectual traditions that I abide in, struggle against, reject, and/or accept (depending), that are often very Christian in origin, rarely do I ever find someone in my face telling me how wrong I am. I try to extend the same courtesy and respect.

With that established, I thoroughly enjoyed Christopher Hitchens for all the reasons I typically hate atheists -- he was viciously polemical, unbelievably rude (at least publicly), and completely inflexible and unwilling to compromise. One of the main distinctions is that Chris Hitchens had both the rhetorical precision and intellectual firepower to back up what he said and to his credit, he completely owned his actions and viewpoints, and though I do not agree with everything he ever did or said, I've long admired that kind of stubborn consistency.

For me, what set him apart from other writers was that the dream of a world without religion for Christopher Hitchens was not a matter of greedy self-fulfillment where he was finally proven right but instead a moral imperative to save humanity, as guided by ethics and compassion ("Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it"). Not petty contrarianism (not a real word) but an essential crusade to impose a state of sanity.

"We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary holds true - that religion has caused innumerate people not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but to award themselves permission to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser raise an eyebrow."

I'm indebted to him for what he's shared. His works persist, even if he's dead and buried in the ground, or cremated, or being loaded into a cannon so that his remains might be shot into space.

You may like his writing. Consider him.

-W.F.