I really, really, really, REALLY wish he had not died before I had a chance to see him in person. I only ever knew of one of his works, and prior to that, nothing.
This was last year, while I was working at the two malls in this city, for a calendar kiosk company, and the mall at the opposite side of town had a Barnes & Noble in it. I was just occasionally perusing the books, mostly looking for Warhammer 40,000 stuff that wasn't written by C.S. "Multilasers" Goto, and one day I was passing by the Bestsellers section. And this brilliant yellow but simple and humble book caught my eye...
![[Image: God_is_not_great.JPG]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=upload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2F6%2F6b%2FGod_is_not_great.JPG)
I was still hovering in my indecisive state towards religion. I was still convinced it had some place in the world, even if not in my life. The tagline read "how religion poisons everything." I found myself intrigued, and as I picked it up I found myself amazed that there was actual atheistic literature not just being published so openly but was a best-seller, no less. I went to the counter, placed the book on it, and the cashier gave me what I can only describe as a dark glance...like she wasn't angry or distasteful towards me but she was disapproving of my choice, but she said nothing. I took the book home, and in between work-days, I found myself reading it, and was stunned at the rhetorical talent in every page, the brick-by-brick deconstruction of the arguments for religion, and the rational haymaker it delivered to the common points theists always try to bring up to defend their superstitions.
I've read through it three times now.
I found myself interested in Hitchens once I had finished the book, and began to look up information on him.
It was then that I learned he had late-stage cancer of the esophagus.
I remember feeling devastated. I never met the man. But...I could clearly understand that he was not just intelligent, he was BRILLIANT, and he was perhaps one of the greatest minds in the atheistic community I'd ever heard of. And he was dying.
He passed away not long after.
I think it's the realization that such a great mind has been lost that hits the hardest.
This was last year, while I was working at the two malls in this city, for a calendar kiosk company, and the mall at the opposite side of town had a Barnes & Noble in it. I was just occasionally perusing the books, mostly looking for Warhammer 40,000 stuff that wasn't written by C.S. "Multilasers" Goto, and one day I was passing by the Bestsellers section. And this brilliant yellow but simple and humble book caught my eye...
I was still hovering in my indecisive state towards religion. I was still convinced it had some place in the world, even if not in my life. The tagline read "how religion poisons everything." I found myself intrigued, and as I picked it up I found myself amazed that there was actual atheistic literature not just being published so openly but was a best-seller, no less. I went to the counter, placed the book on it, and the cashier gave me what I can only describe as a dark glance...like she wasn't angry or distasteful towards me but she was disapproving of my choice, but she said nothing. I took the book home, and in between work-days, I found myself reading it, and was stunned at the rhetorical talent in every page, the brick-by-brick deconstruction of the arguments for religion, and the rational haymaker it delivered to the common points theists always try to bring up to defend their superstitions.
I've read through it three times now.
I found myself interested in Hitchens once I had finished the book, and began to look up information on him.
It was then that I learned he had late-stage cancer of the esophagus.
I remember feeling devastated. I never met the man. But...I could clearly understand that he was not just intelligent, he was BRILLIANT, and he was perhaps one of the greatest minds in the atheistic community I'd ever heard of. And he was dying.
He passed away not long after.
I think it's the realization that such a great mind has been lost that hits the hardest.
