Goodbye Christopher Hitchens...and thank you

Christopher Hitchens died this week. Note that I don't use the euphemisms "passed away", "passed on" or "fell asleep", because out of respect for Hitchens' outlook on life I make no assumptions of him living on in an afterlife or any kind. Mr. Hitchens was an atheist. In fact he was more than an atheist, he was an anti-theist. Not a soft atheist who simply thought that there just wasn't enough evidence for a god, but a diamond-hard atheist, who was convinced to the core of his being that there was no God, gods, spirits...anything supernatural.

I disagree with Mr. Hitchens.

He was also as aggravating in his certainty as a fundamentalist; the caricature of the "angry atheist".

I also admire and respect him and thank him for making it okay to reject and repudiate the mainstream beliefs that dominate this country.

Several years ago a poll asked respondents to rate whether they would vote (in a Presidential race) for people of certain religions, philosophies, ethnic groups or sexual orientations based solely on their inclusion in that group. By far the group that received the highest negative numbers, that is the lowest number of people who would vote for a member of that group, was atheists.

As Americans we have gradually become comfortable with all manner of religious belief, but even as more Americans than ever refuse to identify with any particular sect or denomination, out and out rejection of all religions and gods is considered somehow anti-American.

But my greatest respect for Hitchens comes from this quote: "And even if my voice goes before I do, I shall continue to write polemics against religious delusions, at least until it’s hello darkness my old friend. In which case, why not cancer of the brain? As a terrified, half-aware imbecile, I might even scream for a priest at the close of business, though I hereby state while I am still lucid that the entity thus humiliating itself would not in fact be “me.” (Bear this in mind, in case of any later rumors or fabrications.)” Yes, there are atheists in foxholes.