'Christopher Hitchens asks fans not to pray for him'
By: Kim Moreland|Published: September 7, 2010 2:52 PM
"I don't mean to be churlish about any kind intentions, but when September 20 comes, please do not trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries. Unless, of course, it makes you feel better."
Alison Flood, Guardian
Comments:
“The one who most desperately wants life is the one who, in extremity, most loudly cries, “just let me die!””
What never fails to fascinate me about so many self-professed atheists is that at some point they almost invariably betray their true thoughts, which are not “I do not believe there is a God”, but rather, “I think God is [insert extremely derogatory term]”, as, according to correspondence between Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford, Randolph Churchill did (letter, November 12, 1944. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mosley-letters.html )
The point being that, consonant with scripture (e.g. Romans 1:19-21), there really are no bona fide “atheists”; only people who fervently *wish* there were no God because the God they know is there they utterly detest.
If they really believed there is no God it is doubtful they would waste breath blaspheming a chimera. It is more likely their insults are meant to be retaliation against the One they know is real and despise. And while they rage against death, there is a sense in which they seem positively eager for the opportunity to curse Him to His face for doing such a miserable job running the universe. In fact, one might wager that, given the opportunity, they would go so far as to, well, crucify Him.
Again.
* * *
The sad irony, of course, is that the “god” atheists hate is a grotesque caricature of the true God who was incarnated to show us what He is really like.
My prayer for Christopher Hitchens on September 20 -- and before and after -- is that he will see the true God in Christ, who loved (and loves) Christopher Eric Hitchens more than His own beating heart.