I am trying to remember if Hitchens said anything about people praying for him. I am thinking of a comment about taking prayers in the spirit they’re intended - the general idea being ‘I hope things go well for you, and if I can do anything about your situation from a distance, I will try’ - but that might’ve been something Penn Jillette said.I wouldn’t object to that kind of thing any more than I would object to “rest in peace” (he’s not resting, he’s dead). So I don’t think Shodan, for example, should be included here.
Saying ‘I hope he reconsidered his atheism’ is another thing, and I posted about it in the thread. That’s something much closer to gloating. Saying “I hope that on his deathbed he experienced a spasm of terror and suffering that caused him to abandon the views he expressed and cherished during his life” does sound a wee bit dickish, I think. Imagine that Billy Graham dies tomorrow and some atheist says “I hope that just before he died, he realized that the whole God thing is ridiculous and that his existence was about to terminate abruptly and forever and that he died in deep confusion while fearing that perhaps he’d been wrong for his entire life and might’ve wasted a lot of it.” That wouldn’t be very nice either.
I’m also not sure about the comment that he attacked people who worked for freedom and peace, because I do know he did a lot of reporting from dictatorships and warn torn countries.
Like I said in the Cafe thread, you live your life a certain way. If you change your mind about something at the end, that doesn’t invalidate everything that came before. Death being what it is, we probably put too much emphasis on how a life ends.
Wah wah wah…look at RIP threads for pretty much anyone to the right of John Lennon, and you’ll see board liberals being dicks. Either RIP threads should be respectful for everyone, or not. The rule here is not, so no whining when one of your sacred cows gets gored.
Was I complaining that people were not being sufficiently respectful? No, I was not. I am specifically complaining about people being dicks about religion. Which I realize is like complaining that the sky is blue or that cows fart methane, but I make like one Pit thread per year, and this is the one I’m going with. Deal with it.
I said “RIP”, though I know it’s not the most logical thing to say, being an atheist myself… I guess I just meant it as a way to say; “No longer will he suffer or struggle”.
But that does not justify my saying “I hope he is burning in hell” or even “I hope his death was painful” or any of the things that are considered de rigueur when some prominent Republican dies.
The thrust of this (rather silly) Pitting seems to be that we should be respectful of each others’ beliefs. Considering it is about the death of someone who spoke as Hitchens did, I don’t think that’s a stance that needs to be taken seriously.
A good many atheists are a thin-skinned as well as hypocritical bunch, but that is hardly a surprise.
But are you really praying for him? I mean, really, really hard, so that God brings hm back to life, and of course he realizes that he was wrong, and renouces atheism. Because if anyone coming back from the dead and renouncing atheism would get a lot of attention and converts, it would be Christopher Hitchens. How tough would it be to get God onboard with this one?
I know you really believe in this stuff, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you aren’t praying hard enough. Did you did something to piss God off, and so you’d better clear that up first, then get on the Hitchens reanimation project?
Maybe prayer isn’t enough: you need to keen, too. C’mon: make at least a half-hearted attempt to keen, you guys. I want a zombie evangelical Hitchens on my TV on Christmas Day, preaching The Word between bites of Richard Dawkins’ clove-studded brain.
Skammer, I for one don’t think you’re hurting anyone… I don’t think I will change your mind about an afterlife. And you have a right to your opinion as silly as I find it to be. I’m sorry but I don’t think theists are being dicks here.
