Hitchens: 'We're all dying, with me it's accelerated'

[n2doc]

Thursday, 12 August 2010

Cancer may have robbed Christopher Hitchens of much of his hair. But no one could think it had taken any of his legendary knack for getting straight to the point.

"How am I? I am dying," he says as an opener to a conversation with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, recorded at his own home in Washington DC with his "dearest friend" Martin Amis, the novelist, more or less ambling into view midway through it, a bottle of beer in hand. "Everybody is, but the process has suddenly accelerated on me."

And in spite of the position he finds himself in, Hitchens sounds no less intellectually rigorous. To the question that each interviewer was bound to ask an orthodox atheist such as himself – is this the time to reconsider your views on God? – he offers a categorical reply: no.

more

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/hitchens-were-all-dying-with-me-its-accelerated-2050136.html

Hitchens, presumably, would prefer we approach him now as we always have, whether it is to savour or revile him. He would therefore have little objection to the reaction of Mary Elizabeth Williams, a staff writer with Salon magazine, to his recent post-diagnosis appearances. "He remains a big, fat jerk," she said. "And a goddamn genius."

[n2doc]

1. Vanity Fair article:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009

Topic of Cancer
One fine June day, the author is launching his best-selling memoir, Hitch-22. The next, he’s throwing up backstage at The Daily Show, in a brief bout of denial, before entering the unfamiliar country—with its egalitarian spirit, martial metaphors, and hard bargains of people who have cancer.

By Christopher Hitchens•Photograph by John Huba
September 2010

[malaise]

2. He's right

We're all dying.

[piratefish08]

5. it started the second I was born.

[malaise]

7. Indeed

it is the fundamental philosophical truth. If it lives it dies.

[SharonAnn]

9. My aunt says that "we're issued a death certificate along with our birth certificate."

It's just that the date of death is not included at that time so we don't know when it's effective.

[malaise]

12. Hubby says we're all in the departure lounge

We just don't know our flight number

[roguevalley]

13. I had a near death experience last year and I can tell you its as

easy and painless, that is, until I came back and found my sister was shaking me until my teeth rattled.

[n2doc]

15. Reminds me of this song

Cake - Sheep Go To Heaven lyrics

I'm not feeling alright today
I'm not feeling that great
I'm not catching on fire today
Love has started to fade
I'm not going to smile today
I'm not gonna laugh
You're out living it up today
I've got dues to pay
And the gravedigger puts on the forceps
The stonemason does all the work
The barber can give you a haircut
The carpenter can take you out to lunch
Now I just want to play on my panpipes
I just want to drink me some wine
As soon as you're born you start dyin'
So you might as well have a good time

[retread]

16. "...From the fool’s gold mouthpiece

the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying"

[dmallind]

3. I'm in the same boat. A bit ahead of him I suspect. Same answer here too

No doubt he can say it much better and with more vigor and a whole hell of a lot more publicity, but he remains spot on and consistent with every atheist I have known approach a death with advance warning.

Being around organized atheism for a decade or more I have seen a handful of atheists approaching death, as I am and as Hitchens is. Anecdotal to be sure but so far the record is 100% consistent. None of us has sought out a god, or been scared or overly maudlin. Every one of us has had a s a central response that death is inevitable and that somewhat early death (I think I am the youngest of those of my acquiantance - plus Hitchens - in my early 40s, but none of them was at "full" life expectancy either) is certainly inconvenient, and to be regretted, but simply our spot on the bell curve.

I think one of the dirtiest tricks religion ever played was to make people more scared of dying by telling them it could be paradise when they did.... or not. So not only do you live your life paranoid about judgement, but you end it paranoid about the verdict.

I dimly remember an anecdote I hope to be true simply because it portrays a devout Christian behaving as a devout Christian logically should. It told of a bishop or archbishop who was visiting a sick friend and asked how he was. Being answered that the friend knew he was dying, he said something like "Oh good for you - I wish I were going with you to God". If anyone knows of it or its provenance I would welcome info. Just be quick about it because...well y'know.... ;)

[NJCher]

6. atheists who believe in an afterlife

Sorry I don't know the story you're talking about but I recently came across something interesting in regard to atheists. I learned there are atheists who believe in an afterlife but do not believe in a god.

They think that it's part of nature to go in and out of successive lives, so I guess you could say they believe in reincarnation, although it's my understanding that another life isn't necessarily one here on earth. Also, I think some of them believe we are living many lives all at once but we are not conscious of any but one.

Anyway, I found this fascinating.


Cher

[dmallind]

8. Yers I saw that too

It's certainly possible to believe in reincarnation but not gods. Personally I see the same evidence for either of them - none at all. However not all atheists are atheists because of how they evaluate arguments or evidence, so it's certainly not surprising that some atheists will believe in X or Y (I personally know an atheist who is very much convinced ghosts exist for example - albeit at least in that case there are some interesting and inexplicable photos etc to use as "evidence" if you are so inclined) while not believing in....G I guess.

IIRC in the same survey about 6% of self-identified atheists actually believed in a god. I am not entirely sure how they square that even to themselves, but there has been such an (intentionally) confusing babble from the media and religious folk about what the word atheist means in recent decades that I suppose I should not be too surprised.

[roguevalley]

14. Christianity used to believe in reincarnation but it was voted out in

committee about 1500 years ago.

[blm]

10. heheh...I hear you....

Michael O'Donoghue was attacked by some as immoral for his fatalistic sense of humor...his response was that the only way it would be immoral to find humor in death is if he were immortal, but, hey, he's gonna die, too. And....he did...as he predicted....his head exploded. Brain aneurysm.

((( )))

[dmallind]

4. Delete - dupe

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Williams certainly has it nailed -

he tends to piss me off even when I agree with him.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. I can tell you about three atheists near and dear to me.

My mother, my father and my mother's mother.

Grandmother was raised Baptist, became a staunch Scots-Irish Presbyterian. Went to the Methodist church most of her life because she lived in towns that were too little to have Presbyterians.

I was raised Presby and graduated from a very good Presbyterian college.


All three of them told me before they died that there was no God, no afterlife, and when they died there was no more existence -- and they were down with it. That was fine with them. They were not afraid.

They all died in their 80s. My mom's sister, a Methodist, was horrified when I told her what all three of them thought. I guess she would rather they all be scared of going to hell. When I called her to tell her Mom died, she gave me a commercial for Jesus so I decided that if I had to listen to her give me another commercial for Jesus at my mom's funeral, then the way to solve that problem was to just not have a funeral. Not the greatest solution but I honestly didn't know what to do.

[EFerrari]

18. HIs condition is not a blank check for abusiveness now

any more than it ever was.

He looked very thin in the video and as sharp as ever.