A letter from 'the late Hitch'

[latraviata]

A very impressive letter from a great man.

 

Dear fellow-unbelievers,

 

Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons of this for many years to come, but for now I have found my trust better placed in two things: the skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstitition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency.

 

That essential sense of decency is outraged every day. Our theocratic enemy is in plain view. Protean in form, it extends from the overt menace of nuclear-armed mullahs to the insidious campaigns to have stultifying pseudo-science taught in American schools. But in the past few years, there have been heartening signs of a genuine and spontaneous resistance to this sinister nonsense: a resistance which repudiates the right of bullies and tyrants to make the absurd claim that they have god on their side. To have had a small part in this resistance has been the greatest honor of my lifetime: the pattern and original of all dictatorship is the surrender of reason to absolutism and the abandonment of critical, objective inquiry. The cheap name for this lethal delusion is religion, and we must learn new ways of combating it in the public sphere, just as we have learned to free ourselves of it in private.

 

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.

 

As the heirs of a secular revolution, American atheists have a special responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution that patrols the boundary between Church and State. This, too, is an honor and a privilege. Believe me when I say that I am present with you, even if not corporeally (and only metaphorically in spirit…) Resolve to build up Mr Jefferson’s wall of separation. And don’t keep the faith.

 

Sincerely

 

Christopher Hitchens

[Sola]

Indeed.

Do you mind if I copy and paste that to Atheist Central? There's a shit storm going on over there at the moment due to Ray Comfort's post about Hitchens.

[Peas n carrots]

I love Hitch. That is all I got to say right now.

Oh, and Ray Comfort is a douche.

[latraviata]

Indeed.

Do you mind if I copy and paste that to Atheist Central? There's a shit storm going on over there at the moment due to Ray Comfort's post about Hitchens.

I don't mind at all, but I think this letter is copied and pasted from an American Atheist website by a Dutch columnist.

How about this one:

http://i.imgur.com/qW1ZC.png

The letter is addressed to the American Atheist Convention

[Sola]

I don't mind at all, but I think this letter is copied and pasted from an American Atheist website by a Dutch columnist.

How about this one:

http://i.imgur.com/qW1ZC.png

The letter is addressed to the American Atheist Convention

That one is awesome. Hitchens could really talk the talk.

[finleeport]

Its so sad, the man was a great atheist and freethinker of our time, even though he was harsh and slightly unfair with religion but he had good reasons for it. Cheers to him, he had guts.

And this is coming from a Christian, I liked the man a lot. If I have not listened to him earlier, I would still be a fundamentalist Christian and I would not think for myself. Now I know what I believe in and I know you don't have to be an atheist to be logical or smart. But I wonder what would he thought of a person like me?

You the Man, Hitch. RIP.

[fakepigtails73]

Great letter.

I was re-reading "God Is Not Great" a few weeks ago and that man had such a great writing voice. Now I really want to read his book on Mother Theresa (what I might say is sacrilege but I've always felt something phony about her, shame on me); gotta see if it's still in print.

[Austin]

I find this paragraph particularly profound:

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.

[Bookworm]

Its so sad, the man was a great atheist and freethinker of our time, even though he was harsh and slightly unfair with religion but he had good reasons for it. Cheers to him, he had guts.

And this is coming from a Christian, I liked the man a lot. If I have not listened to him earlier, I would still be a fundamentalist Christian and I would not think for myself. Now I know what I believe in and I know you don't have to be an atheist to be logical or smart. But I wonder what would he thought of a person like me?

You the Man, Hitch. RIP.

I think he would have liked you, he had friends with similar beliefs to yours and spoke highly about them.

It's pathetic, I've known this was coming for a long time now, but I am still so sad to hear he is gone.

[JenniferJuniper]

I'm not one who weeps over dead celebrities - ever.

But I find myself profoundly affected by the death of Hitch. The thought of that brilliant, rational, honest mind being lost to the world forever is a very bitter pill to swallow.

He was big fan of the late American radical folkie Phil Ochs, and so I link his “When I’m Gone†in Hitch’s honor.

And I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone

And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone

Can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone

So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

[latraviata]

Great letter.

I was re-reading "God Is Not Great" a few weeks ago and that man had such a great writing voice. Now I really want to read his book on Mother Theresa (what I might say is sacrilege but I've always felt something phony about her, shame on me); gotta see if it's still in print.

I was pleasantly surprised when I learned about his opinion about mother Theresa. For years it seemed I was the only person who had serious doubts about this benefactress and I express myself carefully.

By the way I have the same feelings towards the salvation army and other religiously based benefactors.

[treemom]

Great letter.

I was re-reading "God Is Not Great" a few weeks ago and that man had such a great writing voice. Now I really want to read his book on Mother Theresa (what I might say is sacrilege but I've always felt something phony about her, shame on me); gotta see if it's still in print.

I waiver on her. But I always respected hitchens because he was willing to slay the sacred cow. I don't have to agree with him to think having another person at the table in the discussion is good.

Is waiver the right word? My brain isn't working.

[mirele]

I was pleasantly surprised when I learned about his opinion about mother Theresa. For years it seemed I was the only person who had serious doubts about this benefactress and I express myself carefully.

By the way I have the same feelings towards the salvation army and other religiously based benefactors.

Can I vent for a sec? (This is off topic and nowhere near as eloquent as Mr. Hitchens, but if he were alive, he'd understand.)

Here in the USA, the Salvation Army take up prime space in front of grocery and department stores between Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November) and Christmas. So, about a month, give or take a few days.

Yesterday I had to make a store run after a work week spent in North Carolina on a business trip and I ran into a bell ringer outside the Safeway. Now, I don't like the Salvation Army (abbreviated hereafter as SA). They are, in the USA, first and foremost a *church*, and a church with some fairly reprehensible doctrines. Most specifically, they hold the standard Evangelical Christian position regarding GLBT people. I do not share that position, not in the least.

So I didn't have a smile on my face, and I kept my eyes fixed firmly in front of me as I walked past the bell ringer. I was NOT going to interact. And, in fact, I was so fixed on getting my food and getting out, that it wasn't until after I'd gotten my shopping cart and put in the first case of diet death (Coke) that I realized, that bell ringer dissed me because I didn't smile at her ("well, at least you could smile at me")! I abandoned the cart, went back outside and gave the bell ringer a piece of my mind, including a brief explanation as to why I didn't donate to the SA.

What really burns me is, as I've said above, the SA is first and foremost a church. It's a church that, because of publicity over the decades, has gotten itself some prime real estate in front of places of business during the holiday season and guilts people into surrendering their pocket change. They collect a LOT of pocket change every year. If the SA was strictly charitable, I'd not have a problem with it. However, the SA has in the past and probably still is lobbying the US government so that it can continue to discriminate against gay and lesbian persons. It's that hostility towards people I know and love that irritates me so--plus the fact that NO OTHER RELIGIOUS GROUP or atheists for that matter can stand outside the Safeway or Walmart and hit people up for money.

I don't know if I'm going to complain to Safeway or not. I really do think it's wrong for Safeway to give up sidewalk to the SA. If you don't feel like putting money in the red kettle this Christmas, then don't.

[treemom]

I always tell the ringers if they are shitty to me, I only donate to tax deductible charities when I get an actual receipt.