I assume that most of you know who Christopher Hitchens is. He is a well known writer, atheist (also pretty right winged) and he is probably dying of cancer as I write this. No, seriously, dying of cancer. I don't want to attack his atheist views. Although, I do believe in a God or Gods of some sort, they probably aren't the conventional ones, so I leave Christopher to his own opinion on that. Frankly, over the years, Hitchens is one the few right wingers that I have found enjoyable and should he die of this ailment, then I will actually miss him. Lately, Hitchens has been saying that if, in his last days, he calls out to God, we are to pay no attention. It is just the pain or drugs talking. Bullshit! It is the fear talking. Believe me, I am normally very unreligious, but if I get on a plane I am suddenly very religious. I will pray to any God that I think will get me where I am going safely. Yep, I am terrified of planes. Alcohol helps, but, deep inside, I am probably still praying to many Gods that I don't even really believe in -- you know, just in case. So Hitchens can say that he has no belief in a God, but such statements that he has made recently make it clear that he (like every human) is conflicted when it comes to death. Oh, he can try to blame his upcoming backsliding on drugs or pain, but isn't that a little premature, not to mention covering his own ass before it even happens? We all want to be seen as rational, but deep inside of every person is that little piece that isn't so rational. What is the big deal about admitting that? Perhaps it is easy for me, already having admitted a belief in UFOs and various other strange things, but I still think Hitchens should just fess up to the truth, if he can see it from where he is. The truth is that even in Christopher Hitchens (and even Bill Maher) is a tiny piece of subconsciousness that is afraid there might actually be a God. That piece comes forward when we are afraid or sick. Really it would be better to just be honest about such things -- our honesty might be needed for scientific research. :-) All that aside, Christopher Hitchens is a great writer. I hope and yes, pray, in my own weird way, that he survives this to insult even more fundamentalists. If, in fact, he calls out to some God in a moment of pain -- I do not hold that against him in the least. Maybe that is the difference between me and hard core atheists (like Hitchens). Atheists are often fundamentalists in a different way and that is SO wrong -- a fundamentalist belief in non-belief. I wish Hitchens the best. I would like to read future writing from him. Some day I would like to have a drink and smoke with him. He is not a bad person, he just needs to realize the truth: he is human like the rest of us and if he subconsciously believes in a God - nobody holds that against him except for a few hardcore atheists that will likely eventually have to go through the same sort of thing. I leave you with Christopher Hitchens: The new land is quite welcoming in its way. Everybody smiles encouragingly and there appears to be absolutely no racism. A generally egalitarian spirit prevails, and those who run the place have obviously got where they are on merit and hard work. As against that, the humour is a touch feeble and repetitive, there seems to be almost no talk of sex, and the cuisine is the worst of any destination I have ever visited. The country has a language of its own — a lingua franca that manages to be both dull and difficult... The word "metastasised" was the one in the report that first caught my eye, and ear. The alien had colonised a bit of my lung as well as quite a bit of my lymph node. And its original base of operations was located—had been located for quite some time — in my oesophagus. My father had died, and very swiftly, too, of cancer of the oesophagus. He was 79. I am 61. In whatever kind of a "race" life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.

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