God, Christopher Hitchens & Cancer

Christopher Hitchens, is one of the world’s most well known and outspoken atheists.  It would probably be fair to say that Hitchens is not just a person who does not believe in the existence of God, but that he is “anti-God”.  I heard him say, one time, that it’s not just that he doesn’t believe that God exists, but that he hopes God doesn’t exist.  He does not want the existence of God to be true. 

Hitchens has recently revealed that he has cancer.  It is a form of cancer that does not have a high survival rate.

Hitchens was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN and in the interview he makes it clear that this stark and sobering confrontation with his mortality has not changed his stance regarding God.  He and Cooper talked about the fact that many people are praying for his physical healing and his spiritual well-being.  Hitchens says that he is fine with people praying for him if that makes them feel good.  But he added that he will not be participating in any prayers.  At that point, Cooper smiled, nodded his head, and closed the interview with a prayer.

(Not really.  But it would have been great if he did, huh?)

Hitchens is well-known for the sharp aggressiveness of his anti-theism and in true Hitchens fashion, at one point in the interview, he referred to prayers as “incantations”.  He didn’t really smile when he said it, but considering the famous Hitchens wit, I took that choice of words to be a mildly humorous jab, on his part, at the whole silly idea of prayer.

As I watched the video of the discussion between Hitchens and Cooper, I kept thinking, “I wish he would acknowledge that he feels some sense of softening in his stance toward God.”  That did not come across at any point in the interview.   

I thought about something written by St. Augustine, “Thou hast made us for thyself O God, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”  I wonder, is there a part of Christopher Hitchens’ heart that is restless for God?  Oh, I know that he would probably say I’m deluded for even asking such a ridiculous question.  But is there a tiny kernel of belief down deep in his heart that, perhaps, has just been rejected and denied so frequently that he doesn’t even recognize it anymore?

Obviously, I don’t know and Hitchens would be likely to say that the only “tiny kernel” he is aware of is the one I refer to as my brain.  (See how good Hitchens is?  He’s even got me hurling insults at myself.)

At one point in the interview, Hitchens assured Cooper that if word spreads at some later date that Hitchens has made some kind of religious conversion it will only be at a point in the illness where he has lost his rational capacities and become delusional.

There’s a part of me that likes to think that if I could talk with Christopher Hitchens, perhaps, I could say something to him about God that could be persuasive.  But, of course, I immediately snap back to reality and realize that is an arrogant and presumptuous thought (my second one this week).  Hitchens is highly educated and extremely well read and he has, no doubt, encountered excellent arguments for God in his many years of reading and study.  Also, Hitchens has debated some outstanding Christian apologists in which he encountered sound arguments for God from brilliant thinkers.  And none of this has changed his mind.

It’s a sad thought, but some people really do come to the end of their lives rejecting God.

But I can pray.  Hitchens even said that if it makes people feel good to pray for him, we should go ahead and do so.  Well, you know what?  It does make me feel good.  I am inclined to pray for his physical health and for his spiritual well-being.  

And, you never know.  Sometimes God can bring about events and circumstances that no one on earth could have ever planned or imagined.  There are events or circumstances that can happen which completely revolutionize a person’s thinking and worldview.  It seems like that’s the kind of extraordinary occurrence that would be required to change Christopher Hitchens’ mind.  Boy, it sounds impossible, doesn’t it?  But for those of us who believe in God, Jesus said this, one time, “with God all things are possible!”

P.S. Christopher Hitchens’ brother, Peter Hitchens, wrote a book that was released earlier this year about his (Peter’s) transformation from atheism to Christianity.  It is an excellent book entitled:  Rage Against God.  I recommend it.  I wonder if, perhaps, Christopher is reading it.  Hey, with God, all things are possible.