A few days ago, Essayist, Provocateur,and Atheist, Christopher Hitchens, died from cancer. I believe that his voice was powerful. If you didn’t agree with him, at least there is no doubt that he made you think or at least want to think harder.
I used several of Hitchens’ debates in a few of my classes as we critiqued religion and religious experiences. And although I was truly disappointed when I read God is not Great because his argument was more of an attack on religious people than on God,(and I was anxious to hear his argument on God really) I felt that it was important to have his voice in the debate. It was a challenging one, a passionate one, and he worked till the day he died;telling us what he thought.
In the tradition of religious debate, heres a clip of Hitchens explaining how we will be better off without religion. I challenge you to listen, squirm, get angry, think critically, and even talk out loud. If you do, I think it will be a reminder that thinkers never die, we just continue to have encounters with them in different ways.
If you are interested in reading some of Hitchens work go Here and Here.