What kind of Christians would decry prayers for Christopher Hitchens?

You insult his memory with your smug condescension. To question whether his beliefs were even in the pursuit of truth is abhorrent, and would be comical were it not for the circumstances. I dare say he’s lead a life of more rigorous pursuit of the truth through logic and reason than the entire Catholic population combined, at least of this topic, anyway. Christopher doesn’t know anything now, least of all your fantasy, his brain no longer functions. All we have now is his memory.

Joining my prayers and penance with yours. May he rest in God’s peace.

After death people (souls) know the truth of the matter they’ve been trying to avoid during life. He still exists, just not in this world. He has been confronted with the reality of the truth and we need to pray for his soul. He may not have wished us to do so while he was alive but now I am sure he will want us to. Belief does not change fact.

@Jenks
I’m sorry for your loss; indeed, I think that Mr. Hitchens’ death is a loss for all of us. Is it really smug condescension to wish the best for him, now that his earthly life is ended? You seem to think that there is nothing after death, and I respect that. I am a Catholic, and I believe that there is life beyond death. I suppose that none of us will know the answer to that question for sure until we reach that point ourselves. As Pat says, Mr. Hitchens knows the answer now, and the rest of us wait for our turn.

Interestingly, I read his article on the Vanity Fair site the other day and prayed fervently for his soul to be spared.  I have thought often of him over these years and hoped that God would hear the prayers offered for his salvation. His supporters may indeed mock and detract all the prayers offered, they may sneer and hold us all in contempt, however, that does not change the sincerity of the sacrifices offered for Mr. Hitchens or for them- perhaps the Lord will show them one day the value of these little offerings.

I have read Hitchens on religion and heard him speak. I would disagree that his religious views were about a search for truth.  If you read him you know how sloppy his thinking on religion actually was and how ignorant he was - or perhaps what he purposely ignored.  In terms of religion Hitchens was not pursuing truth - he was flailing and fighting against…something.  Who knows what.

Amazingly I found more to appreciate in the Commonweal blog post on Hitchens - because I usually find Commonweal useless - but this writer didn’t hesitate to be blunt about Hitchens and his “legacy.” 

The guy did a lot of damage - especially to young people whose pursuit of truth and the God speaking to them in their hearts was derailed by Hitchens and his crew of neo-Atheists.

Not to speak of his cheerleading for the patently unjust Iraq War.

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=16361

Let them mock. Heaven exists, as does hell, and the greatest act of love we can perform for Mr. Hitchens is to pray for his soul. As Catholics, it’s our duty to love our neighbor even when our neighbor has no desire to be loved.

Even his name speaks the Truth. I also, will offer my Saturday morning run/ prayer time to the repose of the soul of this child of God.

Along with praying for Hitchens, let us also pray for his fellow-travelers in this life [such as “Jenkins” whose comment on your article was posted on Friday, Dec 16, 2011 9:03 AM (EST), “You insult his memory…All we have now is his memory.”] that they may receive the gift of faith in time to use their God-given gifts to give Him praise and thanks for His eternal goodness toward us.

I had every sympathy for Mr.Hitchens and prayed for him while he was alive, that he would not die in error, but embrace the truth and be saved.

But I must ask, does nobody believe in hell anymore? It is not lawful to pray publicly for someone who died outside the communion of the Church as one would for the faithful departed. It is scandalous and sinful.

Nishant,

We are called not to judge. I know that is often misused a lot, but it is exactly in this case when it is correct. We do not know the state of this man’s soul. We were not there in the depths of his heart when he first chose to reject God and do not know why he chose as he did. We were not there in those last few moments of his life when he may have repented, even without another living soul knowing. We we do know that he was desperately in need of prayers and so, in obedience to the command to love our enemy, we pray.

Even if he is, in fact, in hell, our prayers will still not be in vain. Perhaps he cannot be saved, but God, who hears the prayers of his faithful, will still hear and apply them to others who can still choose Love.

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Christopher Hitchens
Keep asserting that which we can utterly dismiss. Gotta love the smug ignorance of Christians

<i>Gotta love the smug ignorance of Christians<ii>

Gotta love the smug insolence of atheist trolls on a Catholic site.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

St. Jude, patron of hopeless causes, pray for him.

@ Jenks
“I dare say he’s lead a life of more rigorous pursuit of the truth through logic and reason than the entire Catholic population combined”

You dare and fail dear sir.

Many catholics are very much dedicated into searching the truth in various means, from metaphisical truths to scientific truths.

You should leave your ignorant ways and educate yourself about Catholicism and Catholics.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May God have mercy on his soul.

Nishant, we do not if Hitchens was unrepentant or not at this last moment. There is no way to know. Thus, we pray for his soul.

“...rigorous pursuit of the truth through logic and reason…”

One needn’t dissect the skull to know that the human brain is indeed cloven. When one chooses not to engage both halves of the brain, truth becomes twice as elusive. Atheism is a strenuous exercise in incomplete thinking. An atheist, as Chesterton said, “is often a person who is limited and constrained by his own logic to a very sad simplification.”

I join with others in prayer for Mr. Hitchens.

@Jenks: If Christopher Hitchens were truly in pursuit of truth, he would have asked God for truth, and God will have answered in Truth. Perhaps he did and his immortal soul rests in peace, in the sight of God forever.

For the repose of the soul of Christopher Hitchens I will pray, Oh! my Jesus forgive us our sins save us from the fires of hell lead all souls to heaven especially those in most need of they mercy. Most Catholics know this prayer and everyday we must live it by asking for mercy for ourselves and for those who do not see yet and for those through Gods’ grace see now. Nothing is impossible with God.  Christopher rest in peace we pray. Amen

@ Nooph
“‘That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.’ Christopher Hitchens
Keep asserting that which we can utterly dismiss. Gotta love the smug ignorance of Christians”

A few thoughts:
1. If we’re to be dismissed, why the questions, comments, and challenges? If our utter lack of evidence is grounds for total dismissal, why bother even commenting? Aren’t there better things to do?

2. What is considered “evidence”? If by that statement its meant that anything without physical evidence can be dismissed, then where is the physical evidence for that statement?
If non-physical evidence, such as the intangible concepts discussed in philosophy, is “evidence”, then the statement doesn’t apply to most Christians.

3. In just a few hundred years, what proof will there be that Christopher even said those words?
His book? Put together by a collection of British atheists writing in his name.
Videotape of him? Lost to degrading of the recording and backup media.
Videotape meticulously preserved? Doctored.
People that knew him? Long dead.
People that knew people that knew him? Patsies of the conspiracy to claim that he said and did those things.

Of course that’s ridiculous. The books he left behind, the articles about him, and the people that will pass on his legacy DO demonstrate that he said and did certain things. To say otherwise is to introduce a rigorism that, when applied consistently, denies nearly everything but what’s personally seen and heard.
I have never met Christopher Hitchens. I know he existed because you’re quoting him and people are writing articles about him. I can read his books. In a few thousand years, if humanity is still around, my descendants will know what he said because someone will read your quote above and pass it on, and that person will write it down (or type it or say it) and so on.

@Nooph:“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Christopher Hitchens
Keep asserting that which we can utterly dismiss.
Noop: Are you asserting without evidence an immortal soul of Christopher Hitchens? Are you asserting a metaphysical eternal life from which Hitchens is to “Keep asserting that which we can utterly dismiss? Gotta love the smug ignorance of Christians…who have God.

The one essay I’ve read by Hitchens was the introduction to the 2007 reissue of “Black Lamb & Grey Falcon” by Dame Rebecca West.  I didn’t really care for it.
I remember reading at one point Hitchens was struggling with a drinking problem.

Why is it that he never changed his first name since it contained the word Christ?  Maybe he didn’t really and profoundly turn himself from God.
Hope he saw the light before his last breath. May he rest in God’s peace.

@Jenks,
It seems to me that your truculent attitude will do little to convince theists that atheism is worth considering.  After all, if this is the reaction we get to a charitable gesture (i.e., lets suppose we are right and God does exist, then it is certainly a charitable act to ask God to grant mercy to Mr. Hitchens), then what are atheists like to those who cast aspersions on them?
—
Alas, I somehow feel you had lines of attack ready for any response a Christian blogger might have made.  If we pray for Mr. Hitchens, we insult his memory.  If we attack his atheism, we are insensitive towards his family.  If we say nothing, then we lack compassion.

@ Claire

“Why is it that he never changed his first name since it contained the word Christ?”

Thank you for reminding us about that name. We Christians need to remember something important about it.

It means “Christ-bearer”. Christopher is a creation of God, as we all are, and, in that way, bears in his being the Word through whom all things were made. I’m reminded of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ‘As Kingfishers catch fire…’. Though all fall short in some way, each man is “in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—Chríst”.

Hitchens was a fool and he knows that now.  He rejected God and His Savior Jesus Christ.  That was his choice and he made a foolish one.  He called Jesus a liar as others posting here do.  And we know he and they here reject Heaven and will go to Hell, or Jesus is a liar, as well as St Peter and St. Paul who lived with Him, and still do.  So cut out the the equivocating and stand up for the Truth and tell it like it is!  St. Peter tells us: “[17] For the time is, that judgment should begin at the house of God. And if first at us, what shall be the end of them that believe not the gospel of God? [18] And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”  He also testifies: “[16] For we have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness. [17] For he received from God the Father, honour and glory: this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. [18] And this voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount.”  St John tells us: “He that believeth in the Son of God, hath the testimony of God in himself. He that believeth not the Son, maketh him a liar: because he believeth not in the testimony which God hath testified of his Son.  [11] And this is the testimony, that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. [12] He that hath the Son, hath life. He that hath not the Son, hath not life. [13] These things I write to you, that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God.”
This is not a maybe, or something open to debate, folks.  Tell it like it is.  Sorry if that hurts anyone’s “feelings” but if you deny Jesus and reject the testimony of the Father, you don’t have eternal life in heaven.  That’s it.

“Christopher doesn’t know anything now, least of all your fantasy, his brain no longer functions. All we have now is his memory.”

Therin lies the ugliness of atheism expressed with typical ugliness. In short, Hitchens was a meat computer who is now defunct. This is the abrupt and inelegant end to the story. Period. Dispose of his body somehow somewhere (what does it matter honoring something that is just fertilizer anyway) and lets move on.

Yes that is soooooo much better. Why don’t we all become atheists and boast of our cynicism & condescencion for others. Let us all walk around with our noses in the air looking down on all the dummies who have faith in God and spew meaness and spite wherever we go for them.

@Steve from Long Island:
“But you, why do you judge your brother?  Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt?  For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Rom 14:10. Judgment is the Lord’s; neither you nor I nor any other human being can declare another human being to be in hell. Mr. Hitchens did much wrong in his life, we can agree on that, but no one but God knows the state of his soul at death. We would do better to pray for him.

Lady Cygnus and Chris, it is morally certain that those who by all apperances died without professing Christ are lost. St.Francis Xavier, Pope St.Pius X and countless others have plainly stated it.

We “cannot be sure” is false. It is merely not dogmatically certain. However, it is morally certain, and what that means is that we can safely treat it as true, for it is very, very unlikely to be false.

Moral certainty is more than certainty “beyond a reasonable doubt”. It is certainty greater than that by which prisoners are sentenced. Unless new facts come to light, which is now extremely unlikely, it is case closed.

The grace of final perseverance in the hour of death is the sweetest and rarest of graces, given to so few, according to the Saints and Doctors, and such actions on the part of Catholics would be an implicit denial of that truth.

If you must pray, do not do so publicly and by name. It is forbidden by the immemorial custom of the Church, which only allows private prayers to be said for the same cause. Sometimes priests offer Masses in private as well, usually without name. This tradition has fallen into disrepute and neglect of late, but the Church to this day has never approved the contrary. According to the mind of the Church that is not an act of charity but a grave scandal because it promotes religious indifference if you pray for an avowed atheist exactly as you would for the faithful Catholic. God bless.

Good article :) I am praying for him too. I hope he turned to God in his last moments.

Pat, he wrote back to you, didn’t he? I’d call that a “crack in the veneer.” But hey, that’s just me.

I have loved the integrity ( within his own framework) and passion of this man’s mind for decades. I often have prayed for him. As a Catholic, when I learned he was Baptized as a child I accepted a truth our faith teaches: regardless of his faithlessness, God will remain faithful to one of His sons. And that brought me comfort over this past year as I prayed for my brother, Christopher. He may have not appreciated before his earthly death my prayers, but the gates of Heaven certainly heard all of ours and may his ‘wood, hay and stubble’ burn away. We are told every knee will bow before Jesus. May our friend Christ-bearer have done so with dignity and honor, not rebellion.

Why is it so hard to face facts and break from your superstitions?  It will mean you’ve been wrong, yes, but that’s not so bad - in fact, it’s admirable.  All great thinkers only get where they are through being wrong time and time again, updating their paradigm to accommodate new explanations.

Pretending that something is true just because you feel like it is the sign of a weak mind and a conformist little chimp.

Face reality.  This religion, and all others, is totally a human-made fantasy.  Done.  What’s the big deal?

“Face reality. This religion, and all others, is totally a human-made fantasy. Done. What’s the big deal?”

Big enough for you to be here. What’s up with that, Chris?

@Chris
Your apathy towards the implications of the existence or nonexistence of God cheapen not only theism but atheism. If it doesn’t matter to you, leave it alone. The fact that it is a big deal is exactly why we believe, and the fact that it is a big deal is exactly why Hitchens was so passionately disbelieving. If it’s not a big deal, why on earth do you even care?

I respect many atheists, but not weak-minded, sloppy, and ignorant ones. If you considered what it would mean if God were to exist, you would understand why it is a big deal. Your life would change. Similarly, if it happened that God were not to exist, life would also change. It is a big deal, done. Get it?

Peter M: I gave you what Saints Peter and John say, which is what they learned by being with Jesus, who also tells us these things.  I’m not sitting in judgment but attesting to the Truth as given to us.  Your sentiment makes a mockery of all of this, betraying a sincere lack of Faith. 

Hey Chris: you’re an ignoramus.  I too was one like you until I was given a totally undeserved gift of faith, followed up by sincere prayers for understanding and wisdom, while finally actually reading Scripture prayerfully, receiving forgiveness in Confession and returning to Mass.  You may not have had that precious gift yet, but make some effort to learn first before you spew your hatred.  The facts are that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, walked this earth, died on the cross, and was resurrected from the dead.  That’s not fantasy, those are facts.  And He lives today, while those that have denied Him are all dead.  And read what I posted above.  That is the Truth you face and your future if you do not return to the Church, repent of your sins and seek God’s mercy.  That’s not an opinion, I didn’t make it up, and I don’t care if that offends you, except if it moves you to do what you must, so that you can have a chance to get have eternal life Heaven with that same Jesus Who has confounded the wisest most learned men for 2000 years.

@Peter I am passionate about reason and science and the species of man.  We’re one of a kind:  we seek explanations and have culture and art, etc.  We are a beautiful and rare creature, cheapened, to use your term, by explanations that just aren’t factual or reasonable in any way, or based on ancient, ridiculous texts like the Bible.  I am passionate because I hate to see the death of a great man - a great thinker, a gutsy non-conformist, and a personal hero - used in a dramatic article about how he is now suffering in hell.  Weird, untrue, and scary - do people really believe that?  Are you crazy?  And why would God make someone perceptive and intelligent, provide them no evidence of his presence at all, and then punish them eternally for concluding reasonably that he doesn’t exist?  If you can answer that, I’m all ears!

@Steve - I was brainwashed as a child to believe in God and Jesus.  I respected (and respect) my father so much I took the bait hook line and sinker.  Then I started reading physics, science, biology, history…much more interesting, up-to-date, and cohesive with reality than the Bible.

Do you care to know the truth or are you happy in your bias?  If you want to know the truth, I dare you to read Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time, Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene, Sagan’s Demon Haunted World, Harris’ Letter To A Christian Nation, anything by Brian Greene.  If you can get through those, cover to cover, and don’t recognize them as the texts of individuals genuinely trying to find the truth, and don’t have your perspective open ten-fold, then you’ll only be more sure in your faith.

But I think that would be unlikely.  Learning about reality and science is like finding out that Santa is just your parents sneaking into the living room at three AM.  And a thinking, intelligent person can never go back, except in intentional self-deception.

I’m not being mean, but seriously, read more than one book.

Praying quietly for an avowed atheist does seem the best policy at this point.  However, St. John Vianney once consoled a woman whose husband had jumped off a bridge: “between the bridge and the water he repented.“aid

It is during times like this, one reflects upon the extraordinary enigma of death.  It is deeply saddening that so much energy can suddenly evaporate.  My thoughts are with you Mr. Hitchens.

Ever think maybe he doesn’t want your prayers?  Leave the guy alone.

Chris (another Christopher), The sign of a truly learned person is humility and an understanding of the philosophical and theological as well as that observable by the senses. Without the love of God and His ordered and rational Creation, scientific inquiry would never have developed as it did in history, by people of faith and reason, many ordained to Holy Orders. Many scientists today have a strong faith in God. Only those who are cut off from the roots of scientific knowledge deny God. Scientific inquiry does not exist in vacuum - it is dependent on philosophical principles, amongst which is that the world is understandable because it relates to laws outside of itself. Atheism is an antagonistic phenomeon, an immature, incoherent antipathy to faith, spurred by emotion, not reason. Peter Hitchen’s book, “The Rage Against God”, amongst many others, is very good on this point. Reason is not confined to scientific knowledge and reasoning; it allows us to attain other kinds of knowledge too, knowledge without which we would not have developed the “science” disciplines.

Luke 6:45: “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”

“...From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks”—-so what comes out of our mouth is what is in our hearts, and the mouth of Christopher Hitchens often sought to tear down the Catholic church, Its teachings, and Its members. God alone knows the people that he led astray through his witty, but often venomous remarks against the faith.

I’m sorry, but those who honor and extol a person who repeatedly attacked the Catholic church are very, very wrong. This is the man who wrote horrid things about Blessed Mother Teresa and Pope Benedict. You don’t honor and extol someone who dishonors and spews forth culumnies against your Church, your Pope, your Saints…..you betray Jesus and His Church when you give honor to such a man.

All that should be said and prayed in his honor is may God forgive him, and may He have mercy upon his soul.

Glenn Dallaire
-webmaster of www.mysticsofthechurch.com

@Chris: Okay. I’ll read the books you recommended and blog about them.

I do not think many grasp Christopher Hitchens. Like Tobias and the angel he wrestling with God. He was intelligent, concise which came from vanity and pride. Like Stephen Fry he had sense of himself that gave him a certainty that he was entitled to be and outraged when he saw how fragile life is. With a logic based on anger originating in conceit he arranged his knowlege, his intellect to ignore where he really was in creation (insignificant). He arranged his knowing, cherry picking to exclude any thought the universe had reason behind it (a God).
It is apt he should died from cancer of the throat. From that throat came horrors and bile that displayed his fight with life and himself. He saw the sin (imperfect) in others but not himself. When we pray for him our prayers can only go so far. God is just and Chris’s last conscious attitude and the fruit of his life’s work are now frozen in time. It is on that he will be judged. He was baptised as an infant…that gift squandered as he looked at the world but as with a mirror only saw himself. There are many like him in the world. Death comes for all men. It comes for you!

Jenks—ever heard the expression ‘let him who is without sin throw the first stone’?  Oh wait, that came from the Bible, it couldn’t possibly have any validity.  Sorry, I forgot.
-
Chris—oh, is THAT what cheapens us?
NO evidence?  What do you want, a god-man on a cross or a Fatima every single bloody day?  There’s never enough evidence for him who will not look.
Oh yeah, all that stuff about not murdering, cheating on your spouse, or lying, and resisting jealousy…terribly out of date.
More than one book, huh?  When did they manage to fit the entire canons of Chesterton, Lewis, O’Connor, etc. into a single volume?
-
Alaina: he’s going to get them whether he wants them or not.  I was raised to believe that it’s rude to rebuff or even complain about somebody’s generosity and goodwill.  I may not like every gift I’ve gotten in my life but I’ll say “Thank you” and move on.

Once a few years ago Hitchens during a Charlie Rose interview suddenly blurted out in the most artless and honest way ” I don’t GET music” ... I don’t understand it at all”. It was a telling remark of an enormous defect in his humanity. If you don’t get music, how could you get religion either? Both come from the INTUITIVE SIDE OF THE MIND. It’s must be like being born blind, and invincible incapability to INTUIT THE WHOLENESS of a MYSTERY that is far beyond rational thinking. What must have happened to him and at an early age that prevented him from GETTING such a deeply human trait as music? Yes, atheism ALWAYS INDICATES A HUMAN DEFECT SOME WAY OR ANOTHER, and in his case, the evidence seems to show he had no way to get beyond such a huge defect. His brother was brought up in the same household and was an early atheist also. He is now a believer in God and Christ. He said something that fits here: they would argue about POETRY as a form of truth. Christopher could not GET THAT EITHER. Something was missing in his psyche; something BASIC, which he could not remedy, like being born blind of sorts. That looks like invincible ignorance to me, which, of course, excuses a lot. Shortly before his death on Cspan he responded to the question of still not believing in God this way: with the evidence presented to me now I do not see that God exists; then after a pause, ” but I like to be surprised; I would be happy to be surprised”! The DOOR WAS LEFT OPEN.

I don’t believe anyone here is “honoring and extolling” Christopher Hitchens. I believe we all see someone who has died in what MAY (as we cannot judge ANYONE’s soul) have been a state of mortal sin. Using the graces given by God and the stores of treasure connected to the body of Christ we are praying that if it be possible, he not be damned for all eternity. I pray this for everyone. It is hypocritical to say that he is “evil”. He may have been evil in his persecution of the church. I love the church and hate this but the church, Mother Theresa and the Pope are big guys and his venom won’t hurt. It is God’s will that ALL be saved. He did not make any of us to be damned and I believe God’s mercy is infinite, as is His justice. Love, people. That’s what it’s all about.

Nishant, where is it written that is it not “lawful” to pray for one who dies outside the Church?

pete @ 2:29
This is something I’ve argued against atheism as well. It is half-brained. As I stated earlier in this thread, atheism is rigorous exercise in incomplete thinking. When one in incapable of or refuses to use one half of the human brain, truth becomes twice as elusive. In fact, more than twice as elusive—finding it can be impossible. There must be a bridge between the intuitive and the deductive, and only Christianity bridges that abyss. This is what Chesterton argues about the brain in The Everlasting Man—one lobe dreaming impossible dreams and the other repeating invariable calculations. Christianity offers a complete view of life—logic only half, ‘poetry’, the other. To use your analogy, the modern scientist or neo-atheist takes the music of Bach, analyzes it at its smallest components, explains how and why it works in microscopic detail, reduces it all down to its elemental components, describes every mechanism involved with sound, rhythm, instrumentation and the effects on the brain all in the light of evolution… and then not only forgets the composer but has the conceit to eliminate him altogether.

@Steve from Long Island:
Peter and John are entirely correct. My question is, how do you know that Mr. Hitchens’ soul at the moment of death was as they describe? You don’t. Neither do I. Let us leave judgment to Christ and hope that there may have been repentance.

@ Alaina: Ever think maybe he doesn’t want your prayers?  Leave the guy alone.”

Hey, if we’re wrong, he isn’t being bothered now!

@ Chris: “I am passionate because I hate to see the death of a great man - a great thinker, a gutsy non-conformist, and a personal hero - used in a dramatic article about how he is now suffering in hell.”

Pat knows, like any Catholic, that prayers for someone in Hell are useless, and that the Catholic Church has *never* declared any specific person to be in Hell. If we’re praying for him, Chris, it’s because we hope he’s squeaked into Purgatory (just as I, myself, hope to do some day,) and our prayers will be of use.

I’ve been praying, too. I would say ‘God help him’ when he meets up with Mother Teresa, but she’ll probably be
terribly forgiving and nice about the whole thing :)

@ Kevin: if I recall, it wasn’t Christians who were outraged about praying for Hitchens (that would be weird), it was the atheists, as anyone might expect.

@ Peter M If there is a life beyond death, how long are you going to be around for? A thousand years, a million, a billion or a trillion? I’ll hazard a guess and say 4.5 billion, because that’s when the sun will start to run out of fuel and expand to “gobble up” Mercury, Venus and the Earth and then shrink into a white dwarf star.

@ Peter M If ther is life after death how long will you “be around” for? A thousand years, a million, a billion or a trillion?

I couldn’t help noticing that the Christendom College ad has a buxom young lady with a welcoming smile. It reminds me of an Oscar Wilde quote. “I can resist anything but temptation”.

I’ve been praying for Christopher too, but yet can’t help thinking of the people he let astray and also about the horrible book he wrote about Mother Theresa.

I hope in his final moment, as St. Faustina tells us God calls out to us, he realized his error and may now only be suffering the pains of Purgatory then hell.

We must all remember God’s mercy as His justice too, and leave this in His hands.  I was really interested that no mention was made in his obituary of his brother Peter, who wrote an opposite book on the existence of God.  I can’t help think there was something in Christopher’s pass that made him so bitter and anti-God.  It must be very depressing not to believe in a Creator and afterlife.

@Wayne Phillips:
I’m not sure what prompts the question, but the word “eternity” comes to mind.

Am also praying for this man ... that God gave him that last grace and that he took it. Hope to make it to heaven some day and hope to see him there. In this Christmas Season as Dickens had Tiny Tim say “God bless us everyone!” Be of good cheer ... with God all things are possible.

Son, you just don’t get it ... you just don’t.

If there was any logic to your position or faith Hitch would have been your comrade in arms. You couldn’t hold a candle to him in life ... he doesn’t need you in death.

Son, you just don’t get it ... you just don’t. If there was any logic to your position or faith Hitch would have been your comrade in arms. You couldn’t hold a candle to him in life ... he doesn’t need you in death.

“But there are things I do know.  God loved Christopher Hitchens.  Always has.  He created him out of love.  He died for him out of love.”

Any, um, whatdoyoucallit, um, Ah yes, EVIDENCE for this?
Anything?
Anything at all?
No?

‘That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence’

You can pray all you like, it’s your time you’re wasting. But when you write about the things you claim to “know,” you fall into the intellectual abyss where you would have been Hitchslapped back into reality.

When you make these statements of professed knowledge, you make yourself out to be someone who has never read any of the arguments against your position. I’d recommend reading Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason and Hitch’s God is not Great as starters. If you haven’t seen Hitch debate people with a similar mindset to your own, you should spend a weekend enjoying him through the wonders of YouTube. Perhaps, if you listen, you may see just how wrong you are.

RIP Hitch

He knew nothing about the big picture - and neither do others who choose to act like they dont believe in God by crusing Catholic sites. One can only pray that he repented before it was too late. I pray for him and others like him, in spite of themselves. May I recommend a book as well, its called the Holy Bible, look into it.

Look, either Hitchens was correct and is now not aware of anything, since he is dead and therefore nonexistent except in our memories, or, according to your own belief system, he is in excruciating pain, being tortured for eternity, at the behest of your allegedly loving god. At least give the man respect enough to recognize that he would never stop rejecting the counterfactual claims of Christianity or any other religion, certainly not at the last minute before he died. He said over and over again that he would never do that, and if he did, it would be a sign that he was not in his right mind.

To imagine that he is experiencing “the peace of god” is a transparently self-serving fantasy. I guess a lot of Christians have trouble accepting how morally decrepit their deity is.

SallyStrange, Your log on ID says it all…..

As Pope Pius III said about Rodrigo Borgia:

“It is blasphemous to pray for the damned.”

Every time I show the National Catholic Register site to the friends of mine who attend a Catholic church regularly, they express disgust at the comments on this site. Thank you for helping my friends see the dark side of their religion and begin to think for themselves.
I told them that most of the bloggers would be dancing on Hitchens’ grave, and now a couple of my Catholic friends owe me $20!

I find it rather odd that someone who liked Christopher Hitchens, as this blogger claims to have done, would say that he was misguided MOST of the time. So let me get this straight then… you didn’t like his beliefs, and you felt he was off course MOST of the time, and yet you liked him? To the point of thinking prayer is what he wanted, or would be moral to impose? As Hitchens himself might have said “Rightly are the simple so called”.

I didnt like him, nor his beliefs. Usually, thats where it ends, what does it matter really. Bound to the countless examples of Goodness and Mercy provided of Our Lord, however, those who believe are not excused so easlily. Our Blessed Lord demands that we pray for people like Hitchins, and proclaim the truth to others, no matter if it seem fruitless. Our Lord prayed for those who rejected Him while Dying on the Cross. Given this, what might be the least He would expect the faithful to do when non-believers choose to reject Him to their dying breath?

Our Blessed Lord demands that we pray for people like Hitchins, and proclaim the truth…

Any, um, whatdoyoucallit, um, Ah yes, EVIDENCE for this?
Anything?
Anything at all?
No?

‘That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence’

Didn’t someone say this earlier?
Oh.. wait…it was me.
.
.
.
.
.
(crickets)
Still waiting.

I can only pray that you will see the error of your ways when you die, and realize you have wasted your short time on earth obsessed with preaching false beliefs.

In case you are wondering, that was for the Catholics on this blog.

“I can only pray that you will see the error of your ways when you die, and realize you have wasted your short time on earth obsessed with preaching false beliefs”

Really,very interesting. I thought that according to this way of thinking, we see or feel nothing after death. That we become part of the earth and are never the wiser. So how would I ever know, and why would anyone care. Hmm, perhaps because we all have souls that do live on..

On the other hand, those who refuse to acknowledge God while on earth instead make the foolish choice of gambling their souls away—for all eternity, a word that is tough to wrap ones mind around if one dare give it the old college try. And for what: pride. Salvation is within reach for each one of us that chooses to aim toward it.

There is endless evidence that God exists. It starts with His Son that you so readily dismiss. First four books of the New Testament might be a nice start.

First four books of the New Testament might be a nice start.

If you read my previous comments, you will note I requested evidence for specific, restricted claims:
  “But there are things I do know.  God loved Christopher Hitchens.  Always has.  He created him out of love.  He died for him out of love.”

and:
  “Our Blessed Lord demands that we pray for people like Hitchins, and proclaim the truth…”

As these claims are quite narrow, it shouldn’t be too difficult to provide some evidence for their truth. You make the claim that your god “demands….[you} proclaim the truth” Do you have anything? Please bear in mind that assertion is not proof.

Hitchen’s lives. Not in some heaven, but in me, and every other person he inspired to choose to claim the enlightenment. Those of us who choose to lay religion on the chopping block of reason and name it poison. You are a bigot. You masturbate over the corpse of a great man from some seat of nobility for your own selfish gains. Pathetic.

Then I will be praying for you.

The fact that you cherry pick responses is appalling.

The bible says often, no man can know god, so why are any of you pretending? Besides, with the weak evidence you do have, all you do is allow people with similarly stupid thoughts and weak evidence, the same right to dictate that they know what the creator wants, with the same stupid conviction to kill others, because they feel they know better. When any religious claim becomes as provable and globally accepted to the tune of electricity, then we can talk; until then, stop… you’re doing more harm then good.

http://pa747sp.tumblr.com/post/9540664463/prayer-it-is-literally-the-least-you-can-do