Sunday Sermonette: Deathbed Conversion?

[bill_sheehan]

Christopher Hitchens was a brilliant polemicist. I rejoiced when our views aligned, because his were always better thought out and far better expressed then my own. I despaired when we disagreed, such as on the necessity of regime change in Iraq, for the same reason. Whatever you may have thought of him, his was a brilliant and incisive voice in

Comments

[murphyluck]

I've always enjoyed reading Christopher Hitchens and watching him on video. I like the way he thought. As for the "afterlife", I'll deal with that if there is one, I've got my hands full with this life. Heck for all I know this is the afterlife.

[bill_sheehan]

Ever read Terry Pratchett? Among his many Discworld characters are the Nac Mac Feegle, little six-inch tall red-headed men covered in woad and blue tattoos (Pictsies).

From the Wikipedia summary:

The fearlessness of Nac Mac Feegle warriors in combat is derived from their religious belief that they cannot be killed, because they are already dead; they believe that they are in the afterlife, and that any Feegle who is killed has simply been reincarnated into the world where they have already lived before. They reason that Discworld, with the sunshine, flowers, birds, trees, things to steal and people to fight, must be some sort of heaven, because "a world that good couldn't be open to just anybody". They consider it a kind of Valhalla, where brave warriors go when they are dead. So, they reason, they have already been alive somewhere else, and then died and were allowed to come to the Discworld because they have been so good.

If there is an afterlife, I hope there were Rothmans cigarettes, Johnny Walker Black, and a typewriter for

[liddle_oldman]

In fact, familiarity with the Bible is a fine springboard to atheism, once you start asking questions.

That being said, what this guy seems to have done is written a long-form Chick Tract.