Op-ed on Hitchens: a charming response

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on December 31, 2011 at 7:10am

My response to this left-handed "compliment" would be the following:

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 and I am 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’d urge you to look at those of you who tell you, those people who tell you at your age that you’re dead until you believe as they do. What a terrible thing to be telling to children. And that you can only live, and that you can only live by accepting an absolute authority. Don’t think of that as a gift, think of it as a poison chalice, push it aside however tempting it is.
-- Christopher Hitchens

Does this sound like a man who thought that he knew it all, that he had all the answers locked down? HELL, NO! This was a man who thirsted after knowledge and who was bold enough and energetic enough to go after it in a fashion that few people in this day and age have.

I suspect that the problem that most people who denigrate Hitchens have with him is that he was smarter, better informed, and had a greater command of what he knew than they did ... and the only recourse they had when confronted with his understanding and abilities was to resort to lame references to an undemonstrable god in an attempt to humiliate a man who was already humble in recognizing what he did not know, as Hitch himself showed in the above quote.

If Professor Arcaro wanted to deflate Hitch with that barb, there is no way he could have, because he had no idea of his target.

Permalink Reply by The Big Blue Frog on January 3, 2012 at 9:48am

Loren, I think you missed that Tom was posting a response to his article here, not the article itself. You have to follow the link to the article. I was a little confused at first too. A blockquote or something would have helped. It was hard to tell where Tom's intro ended and the quoted response started.

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on December 31, 2011 at 11:04am

Your tribute was beautifully written.  I'm waiting for Jan first to buy "Hitch-22" on audiobooks. Hitchens does the reading, so it's his words in his voice.  My next book credit comes at the 1st of the month, so it will be a great way to start the new year.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on December 31, 2011 at 12:18pm

Yeah, I hate that bullshit cop-out at the end.  In the same breath, they're claiming the superior intelligence and wisdom to be able to know what God wants.

Permalink Reply by Alice on December 31, 2011 at 8:33pm

LOL - same old story - turn to God for answers....  only then do you know truth!

I'm interested though in pursuing this idea that atheists are superior - I've had mixed comments on here, some claiming that atheists are superior and so should act with that responsibility - and others debating the point of whether we are or aren't, others pointing out that only some of us might be.... :)