Polemical atheist journalist Christopher Hitchens dead at 62
Email 
Print
(Christopher Hitchens, journalist and author of his new memoir "Hitch 22," poses for a portrait outside his hotel in New York, June 7, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
British-born journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died on Thursday at the age of 62. He died in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of cancer of the esophagus, Vanity Fair magazine said.
“Christopher Hitchens – the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant – died today at the age of 62,” Vanity Fair said.
A heavy smoker and drinker, Hitchens cut short a book tour for his memoir “Hitch 22″ last year to undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer.
As a journalist, war correspondent and literary critic, Hitchens carved out a reputation for barbed repartee, scathing critiques of public figures and a fierce intelligence.
In his 2007 book “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” Hitchens took on major religions with his trenchant atheism. He argued that religion was the source of all tyranny and that many of the world’s evils have been done in the name of religion.
Read the full story by Anthony Boadle here.
.
Follow all posts on Twitter @ RTRFaithWorld
Follow all posts via RSS
Follow all posts via Google+
Comments RSSPost Your Comment
-
Author Profile
-
Funny, Hitchens’ beloved Marxism is responsible for 100 million deaths so far, vastly more than any religious faith. And yes, he did pull for the other team during the Cold War, as his brother Peter has confirmed. Gee I wonder how that would have turned out.
And the killing continues.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/15/world/asia /north-korean-labor-camps-in-siberia/in dex.html
The real answer is not a banishment of religion as Hitchens advocated, which involves widespread death everywhere it was tried, but religious freedom and tolerance of differing views. Ironically, the societies Hitchens spent most of his time criticizing were the world’s most free and tolerant societies.