Mortality

This week, I read an autobiography entitled, "MORTALITY," by one of my favorite authors, Christopher Hitchens. This biography held a bit of a strange format for me, because it was written from the point of view of a prominent atheist writer/columnist that had just been diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer. The (admittedly short) biography that would follow was full of humility, admittance of mortality, and wry humor. Anyone who knows Hitchens work knows that he was a commanding orator, as well as a staggering (and oft times acerbic) conductor of the English language. This book bleakly depicts his swift acquiesce to the disease. Painfully, it points out his loss of speech, ability to form a collective thought, and eventual loss of ability to write altogether. He sees the irony in this: "the blasphemous atheist stricken with throat cancer," etc, etc. But what I found most compelling about this book was the very last chapter. The last chapter is filled with his notes on how the book came to be. An idea scribbled between agonizing treatments or glad-handed meetings. Seeds planted in an ailing mind. No paragraph is longer than two sentences. Having been a first hand spectator to cancer, I can attest to the 'wide eyed' energy that comes to the patient in short waves. To me, it was an easy reminder of my own humanity to read these notes, and see their cohesiveness slip as time progressed. Hitchens, who died peacefully at a hospice facility on 12/15/2011 (my 26th birthday) argued that atheism gave us a sense of urgency. Our actions do not, in fact echo in eternity; so it is always up to us to be fair minded, philanthropic, and always skeptical citizens in a world that tries to make us anything but. Nothing is guaranteed, so do the most you can with what you have, while you can. Hitchens never apologized for the lifestyle that likely led to his cancer, nor does he blame any deity for it's heredity (his father died of the same malady.) One review called this book a "crash course in humanity." I call it a rare glimpse into a person that really dives into their fate, and unflinchingly tries to convey appreciation for the beauty of living a fully cognizant life.

This book, as with all of Mr. Hitchens writing, is profound and honest. How sad that this was his final and incomplete work and how beautiful that his wife was able to complete it. A must read with many tissues present.

Christopher Hitchens is dead, but he lived long enough to tell us of his dying. Reporter extraordinaire, atheist provocateur, prolific author, and acerbic commentator and debater, Christopher Hitchens died in 2011. His dying was (quite fittingly) a literary morbidity: he wrote of it in a small, posthumously published book called Mortality. (The book also includes a foreword by Graydon Carter and an afterward by Carol Blue, Hitchens's widow.) Unlike most, who die un-narrated deaths, he knew of his impending demise, retained his writing prowess, and lived long enough to tell us of his dying. In so doing, he reveals how one very articulate and intractable atheist came to terms with his imminent demise. Hitchens was an iconoclast (even writing a book against Mother Theresa called, in bad taste, The Missionary Position), a masterful conversationalist, and intrepid enough to write on some topics he was not fit to pronounce upon. Consider his best-selling and embarrassing harangue, god is not Great (2006). This anti-religious sentiment pops up throughout the book, hurled more as hand grenades than laid out as arguments. I will address a few of these below, particularly the question of the logic of prayer. (Hitchens's lack of philosophical acuity is painfully obvious in his debate with Christian philosopher, William Lane Craig, which is available on line.) In the middle of a book tour for a memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens came down with severe symptoms that were later found to be esophageal cancer, a rapid and rarely curable form of this perennial plague on humanity. Hitchens tells his story without self-pity or lugubrious detail. In fact, he writes with a kind of detachment--here are the facts; here are my reflections on them--but not without some pathos. This slim volume is a less a lament than a report, which is apt enough, given Hitchens' vocation. But it, nevertheless, discloses something of the sting of death, inflicted on one without the hope of the gospel. Hitchens remains a naturalist to the end: everyone dies; there is no afterlife; that is the way it is--and I might as well write about it. Hitchens does his best to defeat the Grim Reaper, but progressively realizes that his chances of recovery are slim and finds no reason to hope against hope. So, he submits to whatever may slow his death, ameliorate his pain, and give him more time to write and speak. He is never sentimental, and offers some astute insights into dying, albeit dying without hope in the world to come. Nevertheless, Christians have an entirely different perspective on mortality, as Paul says, "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope" (2 Thessalonians 4:13; see also vs. 14-18). As he dies writing, Hitchens considers some clichés on the matter, such as Friedrich Nietzsche's often-invoked-but-seldom-thought-through aphorism, "What does not kill you makes you stronger." Hitchens once thought this profound, but changed his mind in the grip of mortality. Yes, suffering can strengthen one, but it also tears one down. He says, "In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don't kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker" (60). Hitchens then goes on to reflect on the truth of this statement as illustrated in the life of Nietzsche himself (60-63), a man much enfeebled--especially in his intellectual judgments--through certain turns of circumstance, particularly the debilitating mental illness that closed out the last decade or so of his tragi-comic life. Of course, Hitchens had no recourse to the concept of the fall of humanity is space-time history, but Christians realize that "life under the sun" (Ecclesiastes) is replete with suffering, pain, and unfairness--much of it seemingly meaningless, as the Preacher said: I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all (Ecclesiastes 9:11, KJV). East of Eden (Genesis 3; Romans 3) and before the New Jerusalem descends on to the New Heavens and New Earth (Revelation 21-22), we live in the time between Christ's resurrection and the consummation of all things at the Eschaton. What does not kill us, may or may not make us stronger. However, if we are "in Christ" (as the Apostle Paul so often says) we can know that our suffering (even when not understood) is not wasted or finally absurd, since Christ himself ensured the final victory over sin, death, and hell through his Cross and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15). Therefore, we soldier on, bruised, bloodied, betrayed, benumbed by the scorched sorrows of this groaning world (Romans 8:18-26), and yet with a hope that "does not disappoint us" (Romans 5:5). Sadly, in Mortality, Hitchens reflects, instructs, and rebukes, but he could not hope that the final enemy of death would ever be defeated. In fact, in his demise he continued his apologetic against religion and Christianity. Consider his contemptuous argument against prayer, which is a staple of the Christian life (1 Thessalonians 5:17). After writing of Christians who told him that they were praying for him, Hitchens attacks the very logic of prayer. He gets off to a snickering and clever start by quoting Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary: "Prayer: A petition that the laws of nature be suspended in favor of the petitioner; himself confessedly unworthy" (21). Hitchens dilates on this by explaining the apparent absurdity of a mere mortal informing the Immortal Sovereign on how He (God) should govern the universe. One could set up the argument this way (although Hitchens does not put it in an analytical form). God is sovereign and all-good. Humans are mortal and sinful. Therefore (a), God has no need for prayer by mortal and sinful humans, given his character (1). Therefore (b), Humans have no need for prayer, since it would be superfluous at best and presumptuous at worst. But this line of argument commits the straw man fallacy by misconstruing the nature of prayer, biblically understood. First, there are many dimensions to prayer besides intercession (asking God to do something in the world). The Bible is graced with many prayers and many kinds of prayer, including praise, lament, confession, thanksgiving, and more. Second, intercession is not meaningless or illogical if God is sovereign and all-good. Consider this counter-argument: God, who is sovereign and good, has instituted intercession as one means by which he rules the world. That is, God ordains both the means (including intercessory prayer) and the ends (the final result of his sovereign will). God instructs us on how to engage in intercessory prayer in the Bible and enjoins us to pray accordingly. Therefore, we should intercede with God according to biblical truths, as best we can ascertain them as fallen mortals. There is nothing illogical about the above argument; it makes perfect sense. To those who say, "If God is sovereign, why pray?" one can retort, "If God is sovereign, why eat?" (This is from a lecture given by the late philosopher and theologian Greg Bahnsen.) God has set up the world in such a way as to make prayer meaningful. Further, prayer can shape the character of the one who prays, whether or not our requests are granted. Spirit-led prayer changes us for the better, whatever other effects it may have. Christians can and should hold firm to these truths, Hitchens's (well-written) banter to the contrary. Sadly, some Christians responded in an ungodly way to Hitchens's disease. Hitchens quotes a statement from a web site that gloats over his malignancy, since Hitchens was such an ardent atheist and cutting critic of Christianity. He's going to writhe in agony and pain and wither away to nothing and then die a horrible agonizing death, and THEN comes the real fun, when he's sent to HELLFIRE forever to be tortured and set afire (12). Orthodox Christians should, on the basis of the Bible, believe in an eternal hell and its divine justice (Matthew 25:31-46); but this website's manner of exulting in eternal torment is both unnerving and unbiblical. Jesus himself lamented over the rebellion of his own people. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Matthew 23:35). Or ponder God's statement through the prophet Ezekiel: "For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!" (Ezekiel 18:32). The death of Christopher Hitchens at age sixty-two robbed the world of a brilliant wit, a flamboyant character, and a larger-than-life life. But living larger than life--apart from Christ, life itself (John 10:30)--does nothing to defeat death. We should lament the loss of Hitchens's gifts, but lament even more the loss of Christopher Hitchens himself, given his unrepentant rebellion against the very God who gave him those literary gifts.

Sad, insightful, funny, poignant. This collection demonstrates what Richard Dawkins wrote in his obituary for the Hitch ("Illness made Hitchens a symbol of the honesty and dignity of atheism"): "And in the very way he looked his illness in the eye, he embodied one part of the case against religion. Leave it to the religious to mewl and whimper at the feet of an imaginary deity in their fear of death; leave it to them to spend their lives in denial of its reality. Hitch looked it squarely in the eye: not denying it, not giving in to it, but facing up to it squarely and honestly and with a courage that inspires us all. "Before his illness, it was as an erudite author, essayist and sparkling, devastating speaker that this valiant horseman led the charge against the follies and lies of religion. During his illness he added another weapon to his armoury and ours – perhaps the most formidable and powerful weapon of all: his very character became an outstanding and unmistakable symbol of the honesty and dignity of atheism, as well as of the worth and dignity of the human being when not debased by the infantile babblings of religion. "Every day of his declining life he demonstrated the falsehood of that most squalid of Christian lies: that there are no atheists in foxholes. Hitch was in a foxhole, and he dealt with it with a courage, an honesty and a dignity that any of us would be, and should be, proud to be able to muster. And in the process, he showed himself to be even more deserving of our admiration, respect, and love."

Estoicismo y no pedazos. Bárbaro, brutal. El Hitch impuso un estándar muy alto sobre como afrontar la muerte como ateo.

今までも世界中の不合理な現実に異議申し立てをしてきたヒッチンズ。死を目の前にしてもその立場に揺るぎはない。生存の可能性にかけて淡々とできることをこなしていく姿は下手なドラマよりよほど感動的である。しかし、その描写はヒッチンズ独自の表現で彩られている。その中で、「死を目前に突然宗教を信じるようようなるのは」という周囲の期待（？）に反して「自分の立場は変わらない。」と明言している。 それにしても、もっと生きていて欲しかった。反宗教の立場を取りながら、それでも宗教者も含め幅広い交流ができる彼のような存在は稀だからだ。そして自分が不合理だと思えることを徹底的に追求できるジャーナリストはそうそういるものではない。彼は日本で紹介されることは少ないが、それは日本の曖昧で無責任な、それでいて建前だけはしっかり守ろうとするマスメディアの姿勢に鋭いＮＯを突きつけている。

Most of us have had contact with cancer in our lives - we've either experienced it firsthand or know (or known) a family member or friend who has had it - and in each instance it's been horrible, an experience unlikely to provide you with much and likely to take a lot from you, if not everything. But most of us aren't Christopher Hitchens - if fact none of us are, and that's why we know who was. He was a unique voice whose essays, columns, articles, and books made the person reading them much more enriched having read them. "Mortality" is his last book (though I'm sure further anthologies of unpublished material will appear in the years ahead) detailing his fatal encounter with esophageal cancer, from discovering it while on a book tour promoting his memoir "Hitch 22", to the final pages which are scraps of notes for future (and now forever unwritten) writings. But it's not a sad book. Hitchens was ruthless in his approach to subjects and he is no less so when dealing with himself and "the alien" (which is how he characterises his cancer) - no sentimentality or feeling sorry for himself is allowed on the page. He is informative, funny, and stubborn all at once when writing on the reaction among religious groups when news of his cancer was reported with some Christians instigating a "Pray for Hitch" day - a day he encourages everyone to ignore. He also reinforces his atheist position, almost aggressively, writing "What if I pulled through and the pious faction contentedly claimed that their prayers had been answered? That would somehow be irritating." As if he wanted to die to once more further his argument that there is no God! If this book shows anything it is that death and the prospect of death does not change the person, and that Hitchens remained dignified and his own person right to the end. There are essays on coping with the cancer treatment which is almost as bad as the cancer, and a fantastic piece on Nietzsche and the etymology of the phrase "whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger". The book is full of rich writing displaying a luminous and inquisitive mind, questioning death, the mundanity of illness, and moving from issues of existence to anecdotes of past columns such as the time he underwent waterboarding to experience how bad a torture it is (very bad as it turns out, traumatising in fact). Also included is a foreword by Hitchen's editor at Vanity Fair Graydon Carter and a moving afterword by his wife Carol Blue. Our culture lost a brilliant mind on December 15, 2011, and "Mortality" is a fine coda to a man who lived life fearlessly and wrote some of the best reportage of the last 50 years. Christopher Hitchens remains an essential writer to read.

Hitchens never shies from the truth, even in this most intimate and personal moment.

Hitchens is a neat earthquake of words, concepts with no exceptions! No rambling, only punches and recoils at the horizon.