The death of Christopher Hitchens yesterday has saddened many Atheists and perhaps many more Christians.
Mr. Hitchens was a man of many contradictions. He was a left-wing Trotskyite who defended neo-cons forcefully and eloquently during the Iraq war. He was an ardent Atheist whose name means “Christ-bearer.” He was moralistic in his writing yet without warrant for that moralism in his philosophy. He challenged Americans to think about ultimate things even as he denied that there were such categories as ultimate things.
Six or seven years ago one was likely to hear an Atheist say that they didn’t believe in God anymore than they believed in the tooth-fairy. The implication was that belief in God was harmless immaturity. However the New Atheists have culturally advanced very far the idea that belief in God (particularly the Christian God) is not only false, but immoral. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens spent a great deal of energy writing books in an attempt to suppress Christianity in the public square. While these books have not proved philosophically deep (I’m not saying they’re as sloppy as someone like Bill Maher, merely that they avoid Christian Theism’s best arguments), still the work of the New Atheist has provided a veneer of intellectual cover for people who enjoy mocking Christians on facebook and youtube comments sections.
At the conclusion of Collision, a documentary featuring a series of debates between Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens, Mr. Hitchens once again reveals his penchant for contradiction. He relates a conversation with Richard Dawkins about the eradication of religion:
“And then at one point, I think this is not on camera, I said if I could convert everyone in the world, not convert, if I could convince them to be a non-believer and I’d really done brilliantly, and there’s only one left. One more, and then it’d be done. There’d be no more religion in the world. No more deism, theism. I wouldn’t do it.
“And Dawkins said, ‘What do you mean you wouldn’t do it?’
“I said, ‘ I don’t quite know why I wouldn’t do it.’
“And it’s not just because there’d be nothing left to argue with and no one left to argue with. It’s not just that. Though it would be that. Somehow if I could drive it out of the world, I wouldn’t.
“And the incredulity with which he (Richard Dawkins) looked at me stays with me still. I’ve got to say.”
Christopher Hitchens, the man whom God used to challenge Christians so that they might not get too comfortable, will be sorely missed.
Douglas Wilson wrote this honest summary today in the pages of Christianity Today:
“We leave the soul of Christopher Hitchens (and he did have a soul, despite all his arguments) in the hands of God, who will do nothing but right.”
