Christopher Hitchens

<h1>Christopher Hitchens</h1>

An outspoken atheist and critic of religion, he made a career of pointing out the folly of most <a class="thought-link" href="brain://cj9YiG0tR0S9_wzGrtI1NQ/Religion">religions</a> and pointed out all of the problems and harm that religion can do.

I think he was guilty of preaching to the choir: if you like what he has to say, you will agree that he says it remarkably well. He was less effective than he could have been because the people he needed to reach were unwilling to listen because of his tone and fervor (and their own cognitive dissonance and biases). He was unwilling to build common ground or to waste time attempting it because he was too certain that he was right—which according to most rules of logic, he probably was.

He suffered from a narrow focus on <a class="thought-link" href="brain://preview.webbrain.com/5IWkj_WbCkuk3zPNwDjZJQ/f_oo3YgNvUm_yPrp77ALAQ/4Truth">being right at all costs</a>. He also neglected discussing the positives of religion and some of the shortcomings of <a class="thought-link" href="brain://preview.webbrain.com/5IWkj_WbCkuk3zPNwDjZJQ/mBce3oHK4EKDgdG3Gxx4qw/SecularHumanism">Secular Humanism</a>.

He also was not the paragon of health and (superficial) "right living", known to drink a lot, etc. and thus easy for critics to dismiss using an ad hominem attack ("of course the anti-Christ would be a raging drunk" even if not really true).

He died of stomach cancer probably unrelated to how he did or did not take care of his health. And we lose many good people who die seemingly at random, so do not let his untimely death be proof that he was not a good person. Duh.