Why Hitchens was most likely the Messiah

Story has it that one day a saviour will arrive (or return) and provide final deliverance from the demagogue of all that is truly evil. He will redeem us from the plague of bad ideas and in whose path we will be raptured into the realm of ideas that are good, just and moral. Only then, we may begin to lead fulfilling lives.

Hitchens did this. An artisan weaponsmith in the battle against mind erasure and degredation caused by faith and its core poison: the abjection of self and responsibility. He knew how to aim and stab the verbal dagger into the heart of an opponent's feeble babble, and walk away without looking back, knowing it was a fatal blow.

He provided lucid demonstration of how to proceed. It is up to us to do so.

Trees—fine. God—not so much.

"The tree long predates Christmas. There's been a festival of light, in fact, and of trees (yule log trees—that's why they're all from Scandinavia) since the winter solstice was first thought of, long before any mythical event in the Middle East, a birth the date of which even the Bible cannot get right and repeatedly gets wrong.

That's fine. They can celebrate it all they like. It would be impossible to live in this country and not notice that there are a lot of Christians who like to celebrate the birthdate of the person they believe is their saviour. You cannot possibly escape it. But we don't want it to enjoy any public preference or subsidy and the Constitution says that we don't have to.

And the progress you're talking about ... this guy from Lynchberg [Mat Staver, Liberty Councel President] defines progress as teaching junk science to our children. leaving us the mockery of the world by pretending that we did not evolve. That's progress to him.

He's a front man for fat-faced reverend who applauded the destruction of the World Trade Center. Front man for Fallwell. Fallwell said the World Trade Center was brought down by God."

— Christopher Hitchens (Scarborough Country, MSNBC)

On the first day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

a rational outlook on life.

On the second day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label.

On the third day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

complete works of Christopher Hitchens, and a kiss.

On the fourth day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

a full set of irony bath products.

On the fifth day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

front row tickets to gloat over the misery of others.

On the sixth day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

Intelligent Design vs Evolution board game.

On the seventh day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

reasons to believe not to believe.

On the eigth day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

an assortment of like-minded friends, and unlike-minded enemies.

On the ninth day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

the right words, at the right time.

On the tenth day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

a Joseph Ratzinger piñata.

On the eleventh day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

a hitchslap t-shirt and matching hip flask.

On the twelfth day of Hitchmas my darling gave to me

hope for humanity, but not all of it.

When Socrates was sentenced to death for his philosophical investigations and for blasphemy for challenging the gods of the city, and he accepted his death, he did say, "Well, if we're lucky perhaps I'll be able to hold conversation with other great thinkers and philosophers and doubters too." In other words, that the discussion about what is good, what is beautiful, what is noble, what is pure and what is true could always go on.

Why is that important? Why would i like to do that? Because that's the only conversation worth having. And whether it goes on or not after I die, I don't know. But I do know it's the conversation I want to have while I'm still alive. Which means that to me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can't give way, is an offer of something not worth having.

I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don't know anything like enough yet. That I haven't understood enough. That I can't know enough. That I'm always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldn't have it any other way.

And I urge you to look at people who tell you at your age that you're dead till you believe as they do. What a terrible thing to be telling to children. That you can only live by accepting an absolute authority. Don't think of that as a gift. Think of is as a poisoned chalice. Push it aside, however tempting it is. Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.

— Christopher Hitchens (Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, TX, Nov 18 2010)

Trial of the Will · Reviewing familiar principles and maxims in the face of mortal illness, Christopher Hitchens has found one of them increasingly ridiculous: “Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Oh, really? [excerpt from Vanity Fair, January 2012]

Unspoken Truths · Until cancer attacked his vocal cords, the author didn’t fully appreciate what was meant by “a writer’s voice,” or the essential link between speech and prose. As a man who loved to talk, he turns to the masters of such conversation, both in history and in his own circle. [excerpt from Vanity Fair, June 2011]

Unanswerable Prayers · What’s an atheist to think when thousands of believers (including prominent rabbis and priests) are praying for his survival and salvation—while others believe his cancer was divinely inspired, and hope that he burns in hell? [excerpt from Vanity Fair, October 2010]

Topic of Cancer · One fine June day, the author is launching his best-selling memoir, Hitch-22. The next, he’s throwing up backstage at The Daily Show, in a brief bout of denial, before entering the unfamiliar country—with its egalitarian spirit, martial metaphors, and hard bargains of people who have cancer. [excerpt from Vanity Fair, September 2010]

Thank you for speaking with the bite of a crisp winter morning.

Thank you for suscitating the most important conversation of all.

Thank you for adding coherence to the ideas rattling in my brain.

Thank you for you.

If Hitchens didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to invent him.

Twelve days of #hitchmas, by @Nickrumr2