I always enjoyed reading his work. Though the times we agreed on any issue were few, I enjoyed the skill and the reasoning that went into his conclusions. He, unlike so many people in the world, lived a life of curiosity - daring to land on positions that were not always popular and rarely predictable. Except when it came to the subject of God.
Here his conclusions was never in doubt. Christopher Hitchens believed that the world should outgrow their belief in a supernatural power and embrace free inquiries, the freedom to pursue all and any ideas. That to believe in God was a fallacy, embraced by primitive minds, a desperate attempt to understand the world around them. That religious myths were conjured up by those with the desire to gain power and riches over the less imaginative. That good and evil were not traced back to a conscience and moral law implanted by a Creator, but that morality is an acquired, reasonable belief forged by your own experiences and choices.
This reflects a small, very small portion of Christopher Hitchens public life and in no way represents his private life other than his proclaimed belief in the views of atheism. Yet there is one thing that we know for certain. Christopher Hitchens died not believing, and not trusting his life to Jesus Christ. That a man of such intelligence, wit and passion, decided as a young boy of nine years of age that the belief in God was a fallacy.
It's always interesting to talk to people about their faith journeys (or lack of a faith journey) and uncover that moment, that intersection where they stopped believing or caring about God. Moments of unusually intense pain. Pain that pierced their souls. Despair that shook the foundations of their theology to dust and then spread it to the four corners of the earth. Moments that came to define this life as well as the life to come. I wonder what happened in Christopher Hitchens life that caused him to chart a course against God from a very early age? What ideas were planted that gave birth to such disbelief? What experiences and emotions formed a life that chose to reject the One who created and loved him?
The enemy always lies. But the greatest lies always have a kernel of truth, just enough to generate belief or distrust. The Bible says that our enemy appears as a bearer of light. This means that when we are faced with a choice of good and evil, most of the time evil will not appear in its true form. We would be fools to choose evil (sin) when faced with the true reality of our situations. Yet our minds can be transfixed by the appeal of evil, as it chooses to masquerade as something that is good. We can even rationalize our choices to convince ourselves that sin is what God would have us to do. That is why it is wise to remember that our battle is not in the physical realm but in the supernatural, against the supernatural, and only the supernatural power of God can protect us in our daily lives. In an instant, belief can shift to unbelief. Divine moments can be forgotten in the chaos of distraction. Hope dissolves into despair. And soon our lives are built on lies.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Proverbs 14:12
