Hitch: He Made Us Think

One of our finest and most provocative essayists, Christopher Hitchens, has died. At almost the same time Hitchens published Hitch-22, his memoir, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which claimed him 18 months later.

It may seem both unusual and ironic for the man who penned God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything to be eulogized by theists. In these hyper partisan times, tributes coming from both the political left and right seem almost unthinkable, yet they proliferate. In response to a Facebook friend's passing along the news last Friday, I posted that "he made people think." My friend, in a Hitch-worthy moment, replied, "I liked him anyway."

I will not speculate what awaits the exuberantly atheist Hitchens in the afterlife. Regarding his terminal illness and what he both endured and learned from it, I will leave Hitchens the last word.