(The Ever Infuriating) Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair—Unanswerable Prayers

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Dr. Francis Collins is one of the greatest living Americans. He is the man who brought the Human Genome Project to completion, ahead of time and under budget, and who now directs the National Institutes of Health. In his work on the genetic origins of disorder, he helped decode the “misprints” that cause such calamities as cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease. He is working now on the amazing healing properties that are latent in stem cells and in “targeted” gene-based treatments. This great humanitarian is also a devotee of the work of C. S. Lewis and in his book The Language of God has set out the case for making science compatible with faith. (This small volume contains an admirably terse chapter informing fundamentalists that the argument about evolution is over, mainly because there is no argument.) I know Francis, too, from various public and private debates over religion. He has been kind enough to visit me in his own time and to discuss all sorts of novel treatments, only recently even imaginable, that might apply to my case. And let me put it this way: he hasn’t suggested prayer, and I in turn haven’t teased him about The Screwtape Letters. So those who want me to die in agony are really praying that the efforts of our most selfless Christian physician be thwarted.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Spirituality/Prayer • * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Psychology • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Atheism • * Theology • Pastoral Theology

16 Comments
Posted September 5, 2010 at 1:23 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. justinmartyr wrote:

We deserve to carry the burden and accusation of those christians (so-called) who pray for Hitchens’ demise. What a shame.

Hitchens is being uncharitable in his response to the goodwill of many christians. But in his current very difficult situation we should expect no more and do all we can to help carry his enormous burden. He is after all no more than a very lost, helpless soul.

September 5, 2:55 pm | [comment link]
2. Br. Michael wrote:

Christians should certainly pray for his recovery.  But, look at it from his worldview of natural materialism.  His life is pointless.  And at death he ceases to exist.  Indeed evolution is equally pointless being the blind operation of unguided nature with no ultimate goal.  It comes from nowhere and is going nowhere.  There is no good or progress there is only existence (assuming you come into existence) and then nothing.

Ecclesiastes 1:2   2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

September 5, 3:10 pm | [comment link]
3. Sarah wrote:

Hmmmm . . . I don’t find Hitchens infuriating in large part because he transparently works so hard at trying to be infuriating to Christians.

; > )

So I smile and enjoy the attention.

September 5, 4:45 pm | [comment link]
4. A Senior Priest wrote:

I find Christopher Hitchens infuriating because he manages to seem shallow in the midst of such important life experiences.

September 5, 6:27 pm | [comment link]
5. Archer_of_the_Forest wrote:

My adult forum before church has been reading through the book, The Loser Letters which is a satire in the Screwtape Letters tradition about the New Atheists. If you haven’t read it, its worth a read.

September 5, 8:33 pm | [comment link]
6. Archer_of_the_Forest wrote:

At least Hitchens appears to have been sober for this interview. That’s generally an improvement.

September 5, 8:34 pm | [comment link]
7. justinmartyr wrote:

“I find Christopher Hitchens infuriating because he manages to seem shallow in the midst of such important life experiences.”

When you truly believe that life runs no deeper than where you stand, you’re going to seem shallow. It’s clear in Hitchen’s latest that he wishes there was more than wading water.

September 5, 8:35 pm | [comment link]
8. Kate_Sanderson wrote:

I feel sorry for him, actually.

September 5, 8:52 pm | [comment link]
9. Larry Morse wrote:

You may #8 but I don’t. This is what free will is about: He has made his choices. He has chosen to be a loud mouthed, deliberately offensive atheist; he go out of his way to offend and insult - and for no better reason that he obviously enjoys it.  He doesn’t deserve and has not earned sympathy. Larry

September 5, 10:19 pm | [comment link]
10. Sarah wrote:

RE: “because he manages to seem shallow in the midst of such important life experiences. . . . “

But see, that’s his favorite defense mechanism.  ; > )

I find it fascinating.

September 5, 11:14 pm | [comment link]
11. Bookworm(Pray for Snarkster) wrote:

I don’t find him shallow, I find him utterly miserable, which is sad. 

The prayer I would offer for him is not necessarily one of physical recovery, but one of spiritual peace, regardless of what he believes in. 

No true Christian would wish him dead. 

1 Corinthians 13 11-12

Whatever it is, he will learn the truth soon enough.  Whether or not he is ready for it is up to him.

September 6, 2:22 am | [comment link]
12. Bookworm(Pray for Snarkster) wrote:

PS—and, I agree with Sarah, a corollary being that he seems one of those types who protesteth too much.  If he writes it often enough and abrasively enough, maybe he’ll eventually believe his drivel, too. 

Albert Camus was the one who nailed it—“I would rather live life as if there was a God, only to find out there’s not, than live life as if there’s not, only to find out there is”. 

I guess Mr. Hitchens spends a lot of his time hoping Camus is wrong. 

It’s a real cold fish who scoffs at those who would offer sincere prayers for his/her well-being.  Perhaps atheism and the milk of human kindness are inversely proportional. 

I don’t know anyone who was ever happy when he was cantankerous and peevish.  I’m sorry for the cancer but perhaps a doctor should order an attitude adjustment.

September 6, 2:33 am | [comment link]
13. Pageantmaster [Free Archbishop Cranmer] wrote:

I suspect it is less about Hitchens working hard to be infuriating to Christians and more about Christopher working hard to be infuriating to Peter.

September 6, 3:21 am | [comment link]
14. Larry Morse wrote:

But trad lady, don’t you know people who enjoy being cantankerous and peevish? I certainly know such. Hitchins is such a one. One may pray for him, but it doesn’t alter that his choices are his own and what they are.  Larry

September 6, 6:28 am | [comment link]
15. Bookworm(Pray for Snarkster) wrote:

No, Larry, I wouldn’t call the cantankerous and peevish “happy”—even if they enjoy the former two traits.  Confident in their dysfunction, maybe, but not “happy”.

September 6, 10:24 am | [comment link]
16. alcuin wrote:

“Albert Camus was the one who nailed it—“I would rather live life as if there was a God, only to find out there’s not, than live life as if there’s not, only to find out there is”.”

Camus said this? It sounds like Pascal’s wager.

September 6, 12:38 pm | [comment link]
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