Christopher Hitchens Dies

I was sad to learn yesterday of the death of the writer Christopher Hitchens of cancer of the oesophagus. Many loathed him, partly for his views on religion. An atheist, one of his many books is, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”. He once described Christianity, Judaism and Islam as the "real axis of evil", and said religion was "a cruel experiment whereby we are created sick and ordered to be well". His straight-talking also won him enemies. He famously wrote a book claiming Henry Kissinger is a war criminal, yet approved of Bush going to war in Iraq. But many others adored his blend of infuriatingly brilliant, perceptive, intelligent and provocative word setting.

Although diagnosed with cancer in the summer of last year, he kept on working until the end. In November last year, he famously appeared in a debate in Toronto with Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, on the subject "Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world."

Blair was easily bested by Hitchins' brilliant oratory and debating skills. A lifelong Christian who converted to Catholicism after leaving office in 2007, Blair argued that a "world without faith would be morally diminished". He also cited the statistic that “A quarter of worldwide HIV-AIDS care is provided by Catholic organisations,” (surely a rather odd fact considering the Catholic Church with its ban on contraception and condom use is probably responsible for at least some of these cases!)

Blair was brilliantly squashed when he held up the Northern Ireland Peace Process as an example of how people of different faiths can bridge their differences.

Quipped Hitchins: “But where does that religious divide in Northern Ireland come from? Four-hundred years and more in my own country of birth of people killing each other’s children depending on what kind of Christian they were.”

A short excerpt can be seen here -

The full debate is on

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/297090-1