Atheist trashes Hitchens.

[Ben Davis]

Don't get me wrong. I think this is a shameless smear campaign brought about posthumously to avoid having to defend himself against Hitchens. But there are a couple of things I believe he gets right.

Firstly, there is the fact that the "new atheists" seem only to be concerned with fundamentalist interpretations of religion.

Not a fact. Many arguments are targeted at fundamentalist interpretations because the causes of much of the harm are the fundamental tenets of those religions. But it's not just the fundamentals/ists which are criticised: many arguments are aimed at religious 'moderates'. It's always worth reminding ourselves that many religions (especially the Abrahamic ones) were always meant to be interpreted fundamentally and that modern, 'moderate' views have been, in the main, forced upon religious interpretation by those who opposed the fundamentals.

Secondly, Hitchens does kind of gloss over Buddhism, which comes across as an attempt to broadly paint large group with the same bunch.

I've heard Hitchens refer to a variety of types of Buddhism and clearly differentiate between philosophical & religious interpretations. He often used Buddhists as an example of the variety of beliefs in 'atheism' when countering atheist stereotypes. His main point regarding Buddhism has always been that even religions which seem peaceful can cause harm when fundamentalist interpretations are applied. There's no reference to that in the article, just a misrepresentation of his views on Buddhism.

Thirdly, Hitchens claims religious people make assertions without supporting them, but then claims we should all use reason without supporting it.

This is just a nonsense statement, an unsupported bold assertion from Curtis which can be easily rebutted. Hitchens has always championed the need for support for one's arguments, for the use of evidence, for arming oneself with knowledge & information, for studying & critiquing one's own position. He's been explicit in saying so on many occasions. One of his most famous quotes is "That which can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence". It's one of the reasons why he developed such powerful arguments and why he was such a remarkable, successful journalist, author & contrarian.