Recently I was very interested to read a New York Times article (Oct. 9, 2011) about the celebrated atheist, and essayist, Christopher Hitchens, who is dying of cancer. He has written books with titles such as: God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Hitchens now confesses that he cannot eat much or drink alcohol or smoke but his life is enjoyable to him in a way that was not possible before. His friend, the writer Martin Amis, says, “Hitch’s buoyancy is amazing…he has this great love of life…it’s an odd thing to say….it’s as if he’s become religious.”
I have to marvel at this. Isn’t there a passage somewhere in the bible which says: “He who abides in love abides in God and God in him?”
If this is true and that God’s substance is love, then he is at work everywhere, even in the soul of arch-denier Christopher Hitchens.
This man has a formidable intellect. Camus said that an intellectual is “someone whose mind watches itself.” My question: is there a possibility that Hitchens is so wrapped up in his own mind and the strength of his own ideas that the thought of a power greater than himself is not conceivable to him? To me there is something unfortunate about this.
I once taught a feisty six year old boy with enormous self-confidence. He could out-talk anyone and could easily convince others in the class to follow his plans.
One summer his mother took him on a trip to Europe where he visited some of the great cathedrals. Inside these churches, her son was uncharacteristically silent. He appeared filled with awe as he cranked his head sideways, looking upwards, marvelling at the huge space above him. Her comment to me afterwards was that perhaps this was the first time in his short life that it had occured to him that there was a dominion greater than himself.
I can’t help but wonder if there are not some aspects of Hitchen’s life which are similar to this story. Of course I would never say all this to his face as the power of his rebuke would surely tear me to shreds, but I can share my thoughts about him on this blog.
