I saw Christopher Hitchens speak once at a book convention in Dallas in March 2009. He was put on a platform against five Christian theists (!). Count ’em: five! I blogged about that here. It looked rather ridiculous, but I can undertand why. Even if Hitchens wasn’t much of a technical philosopher, he was a master rhetorician and a notorious iconoclast whether the target was Mother Teresa or God. It didn’t help the Christians on stage that his crisp English accent added an air of sophistication to everything he said.
Hitchens passed away yesterday of esophageal cancer at the age of 62. You may loved him, hopefully you didn’t hate him (even if you didn’t care for his views). But whatever your attitude toward him, he certainly made the world a more interesting place and he will be missed.
You can read about his passing in the Guardian here.
Doug Wilson, Hitchens’ conservative Christian opponent and friend offered a reflection on Hitchens’ life and death at “Christianity Today”. You can read it here.
