Where is christopher hitchens today

CBS News Christopher Hitchens, the acclaimed and often controversial author, took on many topics throughout his prolific career -- he condemned religion in his well-known tome "God is Not Great," and in his last work, he chronicled his ordeal with esophageal cancer. Hitchens died of cancer in December and his last book, "Mortality," has just been published. It includes seven essays he penned for "Vanity Fair," and a final chapter that he never finished.

Friday morning, Hitchens' widow, Carol Blue, joined "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose to discuss the highly anticipated work of non-fiction and her husband's legacy and last hours. But I like surprises. The author and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins described him as the "finest orator of our time" and a "valiant fighter against all tyrants including God".

He said Hitchens had been a "wonderful mentor in a way". Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who once worked as an intern for Hitchens, said: "Christopher Hitchens was everything a great essayist should be: infuriating, brilliant, highly provocative and yet intensely serious. A collection of his essays, Arguably, was released this year.

Obituary: Christopher Hitchens. Commentators pay tribute. Hitchens on life, death and lobster. Blair v Hitchens: Religion debate. New Statesman - Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair's editor said those who read him felt they knew him. But Christopher well knew that whatever criticisms and loss of friendships he had suffered then would pale in comparison to what would follow his religious conversion.

Hatred of God was the central tenet of their faith, and there could be no redemption for those renouncing it.

And it is here that his courage failed him. In the end, however contrary our natures might be, there are always a few people whose approbation we desire and to whose standards we conform. From Hitchens himself, however, there is only silence in the place where the supporting quotation or anecdote should have been. What Taunton offers in lieu of evidence are two lines of argument whose merits are … well, you decide for yourself what they are.

After all, a real atheist must agree with Peter Singer that a human baby is of no greater moral significance than a piglet. Since Hitchens did not agree with Singer, Hitchens must be moving toward agreement with Taunton. As for the first argument, it mistakes curiosity for assent. The off-stage Christopher Hitchens often paid respectful attention to points of view he thought partly or wholly mistaken.

The anecdote runs as follows: Christopher Hitchens has just finished yet another round of debate with a religious opponent. Relaxing in a restaurant after the debate, that opponent had a complaint. Hitchens had unfairly used atrocity stories to win his argument. I could add many more stories of my own to the ones you have told. But they are not the actions of genuine Christians.

Now comes the punchline. I interviewed Taunton early on Memorial Day morning and put the question directly to him. And so I walk into things—that I saw Christopher saying, that I saw him doing, and from that I draw certain inferences.

People do communicate important messages non-verbally. That possibility requires us to consider other questions: How sensitive an observer is Larry Taunton? And how reliable a narrator? It is from Taunton we learn about the supposedly close relationship between himself and Hitchens—and we learn it via the amazing efflorescence of compliments to himself that Taunton gathers in his pages.

It's disquieting that Taunton acknowledges he seldom took contemporaneous notes of his conversations with Hitchens. They sound very like the gracious things Hitchens would say to a debate-stage sparring partner and post-debate drinking companion. The abundant collection of compliments to Taunton from Hitchens forms a very striking contrast to the massive barrage of abuse that Taunton directs at his dear friend, Christopher Hitchens.

In , Hitchens participated in a written exchange with theologian Douglas Wilson as part of his promotional tour for God Is Not Great. The subsequent debate between the two was published as the book Is Christianity Good for the World? To unlock this article for your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below. To share this article with your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below.

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