WHAT DID HITCH MEAN FOR YOU?
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MODERATOR'S NOTE:
Guys, let's keep this thread as it was intended– a thread about what Hitch meant to people. That doesn't mean that we can't say that some of the things that he said and wrote were wrong in our personal view. But let's keep it free of discussions about where Hitch is, in heaven or in hell, or why indeed an atheist would feel sorrow at the loss of another human being (As well as free of replies to those kinds of posts because they will be removed). Those questions can obviously be hashed out elsewhere in the forum of course!
Thanks!
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What Christopher Hitchens meant to me cannot really be described in words. He was such an amazing human being and I cannot believe he is really gone. Over the past few months he had even exchanged emails me with me on a couple of occasions. He was truly a hero.
Christopher Hitchens was a man of courage and honor. Hitch always spoke his mind and took the fight to religious bigotry and was unapologetic about it. In addition, he was not a cultural relativist or an Islamic apologist like is the case with many atheists. He called Islamic ideology for what it truly was: totalitarianism and oppression. In addition, he was a great friend for freedom and democracy and although he was a leftist all his life, he stood and supported the Iraqi people for their quest for freedom - particularly the great Kurdish people. And as an Iranian, he was a great friend of the Iranian people and it is a shame that he was not able to see a free Iran in his lifetime. Most importantly: he was genuine and one of the most insightful and intelligent human beings I have ever heard whom possessed great insight and a realistic foresight of world problems.
I will write more on him later but he was truly a hero of mine and I don't have any other heroes. He was someone that inspired me in ways that cannot be expressed. For the rest of my life, I will try to live with his ideals and inspiration as much as I can. To be honest, right now has become one of the gloomiest and darkest days, and my heart feels empty.
Tags: Christopher Hitchens
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Isaac on -
Hitchens was a boss. He was very eloquent, intelligent, and understandable. He was a great communicator and a great mind.
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Permalink Reply by Dale Headley on -
In my eyes, Christopher Hitchens was a flawed hero. I cheered him on for having the courage to swim against the tide and call out the iconic Mother Teresa for the Catholic proselytizer she was. On the other hand, I was saddened by his support for war criminal, George Bush, and the inhumane Iraq War. It kind of tarnished his image as a humanist, I thought.
But he was a GREAT rhetorician and a passionate, no-holds-barred atheist, which cements him overall as a hero in my mind. I can only hope (NOT pray) that I will face death as courageously as he did.
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Permalink Reply by Sassan K. on -
What you see as flawed I see as virtue. The great Christopher Hitchens was a great supporter of human rights, freedom, and self-determination; particularly of the great Kurdish people who suffered so long under the brutal tyranny and terror of Saddam Hussein. More importantly, he demonstrated that he uses his own logic and prowess rather than being purely an ideologue of the left or the right. While he was to the left, he decided on issues on their own merits and rationality.
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Permalink Reply by Skepticlese on -
I learned of his death last night just as I was getting ready to go to bed. Then found myself unable to sleep. Although I never met him, I had read much of what he had written and felt, in some small way, that I sort of knew him. His clarity of thought and remarkbale wit helped me immensely in developing and articulating my own views.
In a sense, we atheists possibly mourn death more than others, as we know there is nothing else: the world has lost a great thinker and there is no heaven in which to reap his reward. We are justifiably angered and saddened at his loss, comforted only by the knowledge that, due in great part to his influence, he has left us this legacy: a generation of free thinkers unbound by the shackles of religious dogma committed to continue the fight against theist ignorance and tyranny.
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Permalink Reply by Sassan K. on
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Beautifully put and I agree with you 100%. We do prob. mourn more than believers for the reasons you cited.
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Permalink Reply by Sultan Sharaf Eldeen on -
"The one word that comes to mind when I think of my brother is ‘courage’. By this I don’t mean the lack of fear which some people have, which enables them to do very dangerous or frightening things because they have no idea what it is to be afraid. I mean a courage which overcomes real fear, while actually experiencing it."- Peter Hitchens..this says it all..there will be no another Hitch!!
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Permalink Reply by bob spencer on -
...slightly more composed now. spent the morning crying and the afternoon defending Hitch from bigots and ...well you know. Hitch was a one-off like all of us.He was egalitarian.He wasn't afraid to abuse and took abuse as a compliment .He could tell people to fuck off and mean it.Just gonna listen to Dylan's Idiot wind and grieve...
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Leon Bogardus on -
he was one of the reasons why i became a militant atheist him and richard dalkins made me proud to be an atheist and taught me to be myself and speak out so i came out about being bi and all the dipression slipped away so in a form he helped me save my life decay without disturbance C.H.
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Permalink Reply by Tex on
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I have tears running down my face as I type this and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
We have lost a champion of common sense, rational thought, & critical thinking, who can possibly take up where he left off?
Take a look at some of the terrible things these loving Christians have said about Hitch on www.yahoo.com, these delusional idiots surely do not practice what they preach.
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Leon Bogardus on
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i put my own oppions on some of them because i started getting mad at the imbisiles who where insulting him
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