Christopher Hitchens, God And Cancer.

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Hitch-22 - Christopher Hitchens, God And Cancer. Anderson Cooper's interview, CNN AC360°, 5 August 2010, with author and outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens on his cancer diagnosis and whether it has changed his thoughts on God.

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Anderson Cooper: "I just flew down to Washington to talk with author Christopher Hitchens. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in June, and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Many people upon receiving a cancer diagnosis would ask 'why me?' Hitchens's answer, is 'why not me?' Much of his hair has fallen out, but he seems strong as ever. We discussed whether his diagnosis has in any way altered his well-known opinion of religion and prayer."

• http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/05/thoughts-before-debating-christopher-hi...
• http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/05/hitchens-on-cancer-diagnosis-why-not-me/

Author Stephen Prothero's CNN blog about Christopher Hitchens:
• http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/05/facing-down-hitchens-facing-down-can...

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Books of The Times: In Memoir, Christopher Hitchens Looks Back
(Review by Dwight Garner)

... "Hitch-22 - A Memoir" traces Mr. Hitchens's coming of age as a public intellectual and as a man, and charts the long and serrated arc of his thinking about politics, from his early days as a militant member of the International Socialists to his gradual drift toward positions, like his support for the Iraq War, that have made some on the left scratch their heads.

Anyone who's closely read Mr. Hitchens's work — including his best-selling manifesto "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" (2007) — or seen him do battle on cable news programs, knows that he has a mind like a Swiss Army knife, ready to carve up or unbolt an opponent's arguments with a flick of the wrist. He holds dear the serious things, the things that matter: social justice, learning, direct language, the free play of the mind, loyalty, holding public figures to high standards.

His mental Swiss Army knife also contains, happily, a corkscrew. Mr. Hitchens is devoted to wit and bawdy wordplay and to good Scotch and cigarettes (though he has recently quit smoking) and long nights spent talking. He is also devoted to friendship. "Hitch-22" is among the loveliest paeans to the dearness of one's friends — Mr. Hitchens's close ones include Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and the poet James Fenton — I've ever read. The business and pleasure sides of Mr. Hitchens's personality can make him seem, whether you agree with him or not, among the most purely alive people on the planet.

"Hitch-22" does a sleek, funny job of rolling out his life story. He was born in 1949 in Portsmouth, into a less-than-bookish family: his father was a career navy man. Mr. Hitchens was precocious. According to family legend, his first complete sentence was "Let's all go and have a drink at the club." ...

• Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/books/02book.html

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(c) 2010 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
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Category:

Education

Tags:

• christopher
• hitchens
• god
• atheist
• atheism
• religion
• esophageal
• prayer
• cancer
• chemotherapy
• hitch
• 22
• cnn
• interview

[TheLordHodne]

The tittle is misleading. I see cancer written twice.

[bttrflykiss7701]

So sickening that such a brilliant man walks Earth no more...

[JazzyKat2009]

@nick1979usmc If you find him a brilliant intellectual, I wonder why you don't agree with anything he says.

[lankher]

77.777th view. Cool story

[shaggyhag]

@SmoothGrooove Ah another obedient slave to an imaginary master, it's a truly curious twist of evolution that produces such a mental state. If I hadn't seen it a million times, I wouldn't believe it was possible.

[SkittlesLoli]

Yes, death, how boring...

[SmoothGrooove]

@Drpetya1965 God's ways are not always understood by mankind and His ways are not are ways. The Bible has been proven to be verifiable via archaeology, prophecy, and other analyses. It sounds like foolishness to non-believers so I can't make you believe it. Only God can. It has been explained that the people at Babel were not spreading out as God had commanded and defying Him. It is not about reaching heaven but more about being disobedient and doing what they wanted to do for themselves.

[Drpetya1965]

@SmoothGrooove God save me from your followers! you really believe thats where different languages came from?? God wanted to confuse people so that they couldnt conspire to reach heaven? what the fu--? so using that mentality like the tower of babel, when we decided to go into space why did he allow that? thats further than any tower could have been built? then you'll say well you just have to have faith, Hitchens was more honest than 99 percent of my fellow christians.especiallyu

[greatgatsb9o921o]

Hitchens is a very deluded man. I hope he doesn't get cancer and die.

[nick1979usmc]

I don't agree with any thing Christopher says, however he was a brilliant intillectual.

[pencil1918]

@bttrflykiss7701 You will see him again. He is in heaven with God. I put money on it.

[adamk4747]

@dermotheaney kual