When I stumbled onto Christopher Hitchins many years ago in Vanity Fair magazine, he was like a train wreck to me. I didn’t like what I read, or rather didn’t agree with the viewpoint, but I couldn’t stop reading. His first column that I read was about his staunch view on atheism. He was extremely in your face about his credence that no God exists, almost taunting. For some reason, I continued to read month after month despite my differing opinion about religion. We did agree on one thing: that organized religion is at the heart of many of the worlds conflicts. I chose this quote about his views to illustrate his thoughts: “Hitchens contended that organized religion is the main source of hatred in the world: violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children, and that accordingly it "ought to have a great deal on its conscience.” I agree with him that people use religion as a basis for war, judgment of others, intolerance and demagogy. But I do have belief and faith that the world can be better eventually, whereas he did not. And I admit that the news carries stories every day proving me wrong. I still believe that I can work to help others, to demonstrate my own faith by loving people despite our differences and by continuing to see the goodness in humankind.
I was married to a Jehovah’s Witness (a fallen one obviously, as they aren’t supposed to marry outside of their faith) for ten years. He had not only fallen away from the religion, but his upbringing had left him very soured to the thought of religion as whole. And despite my early assumption that it was “no big deal”, I came to understand that for him, he was his own highest power. And to that end, it was like living in a bad city with no police. Like the Wild West, with no law to answer to, no guideline to follow and no repercussion for breaking a law. This was my only personal experience with someone who was a nonbeliever, so to read Hitchens’ viewpoint actually gave me insight into the fact that not all nonbelievers are lawless.
When Christopher Hitchens became ill with cancer a couple of years back, I continued to read his column which spoke about his illness and his strong opinions on pretty much every topic. Your feeling on religion aside, the man was brilliant. He could speak about many topics, to any audience. He was snarky and sarcastic, often self depreciating, which I appreciate. He had a humor about his sickness, and for a good while was determined that this cancer would not defeat him as it had his father. Sadly, he was incorrect and he passed away earlier this month.
When I read that he had passed, I went onto the VF website to read his memoriam written by Graydon Carter, the Editor of VF. It was deeply respectful and alluded to the genius that many felt Hitchins possessed. I also dug deeper to see if he had what sometimes happens: a deathbed conversion. He did not and in fact he was adamant that would not happen. He held fast to his convictions right up until the end. I suppose after a lifelong certainty that he was right, most would choose to not let go of them in the end.
If nothing else, I remain optimistic that when people learned of his passing that they did not further his hunch about religion being the main source of hatred in the world. He was someone’s love, someone’s son and someone’s brother. I am hopeful that whatever religious creed someone subscribes to, that it holds within it the most basic and profound of all values: KINDNESS, COMPASSION AND LOVE.
