In Memoriam: Christopher Eric Hitchens

When I read the news that Christopher Hitchens has died I just felt frozen for a minute and I couldn't believe the words I was staring at on my screen. It seemed like a big joke. If there was a man whom I thought Death would avoid for as long as it could, it would be Christopher Hitchens. He could probably say something clever to Death's face and send him laughing, telling him to come back another day.

But December 15, 2011 would now be remembered as a sad day for the freethinking world. He was 62 and battling esophageal cancer, he put up a good fight for as long as he could.

I never got to see Hitchens in person. I never personally knew the man. But I will be forever grateful to him for the things he has done. Watching Hitchen's videos on Youtube and other various websites, reading his books, writings and listening to whatever audio I manage to come across somehow made me feel I have an ally in him.
His works had a very strong influence in my life especially his criticisms about religion. He made me realize that I need not be ashamed to admit that I am a non-believer. I should not be ashamed on calling people out on their bullshit. I should not be ashamed when my thoughts and opinions would not agree with the majority. Sometimes I could not understand what he was talking about, especially when it was about politics. Simply because I was not as informed as him. But then again, we also really do not have anyone we can agree with 100%. That is just absurd.

His powerful words stirred the fire of strength and life in me. He showed that one need not be afraid to stand up for what they truly believed in. One should be free to voice out his opinions and declare his thoughts. And even though your thoughts may not always go well with the majority, if you speak the truth and you have the evidence to back it up then be strong, be firm, speak up and truly the world will listen.

The exposures he did on famous personalities at one point or another has made him quite unpopular. Yet, since he could back-up his opinions, the world listened and watched and what he said forever changed it.

My heart truly aches for the loss of this great thinker. Yet I am also feeling grateful that I was able to live in a time when he lived. I got to witness his work. He may be dead but his works and words will live on.

“Hitchens’ mastery of a logical argument along with his confident demeanor gave many the courage to come out of the atheist closet,” Roy  Speckhardt said about him.

Hitch I salute you!

Some of Christopher Hitchens' quotes that I love and treasure.

“You don’t so much as become an atheist as find out that’s what you are. There’s no moment of conversion. You don’t suddenly think ‘I don’t believe this anymore.’ You essentially find you don’t believe it,” Christopher Hitchens said in an interview with Sally Quinn.

"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."

"For a lot of people, their first love is what they'll always remember. For me it's always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going. If you don't let it get out of hand, it can be canalized into writing. In this country where people love to be nonjudgmental when they can be, which translates as, on the whole, lenient, there are an awful lot of bubble reputations floating around that one wouldn't be doing one's job if one didn't itch to prick."

"The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has — from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness."

Screwed?

So here I am, pondering about what happened this year. Over all I can say 2011 was not so bad. A lot of new things happened and many doors were opened. I got to meet good people and experienced new things but it seems the good ride is coming to a halt. Personal life and my career (if I can consider my current job as one) are slowly heading down a slippery slope.

When they said life was like a wheel, they meant it. I just now fully realized what it truly means and I'm hating it. It would be much easier if we get a clear warning whenever our wheel heads down.

I made so many stupid moves lately. I've been irrational.
Also I seem to have alienated a few good people or I suppose they have now decided to distance themselves from me. I can't tell anymore.

I admit that oftentimes I try not to care, no matter how much I do because I realize that sometimes you can mean nothing to someone who means so much to you. It's not pride, it is self-respect.
They're the ones who promise a lot of things, say they'll always be there but when tomorrow comes they are gone and you find yourself alone again.

But I guess the important thing is to keep and cherish the good memories. And as always, one must go on. I must continue and see where all this will take me.

This post doesn't mean anything. I just want to vent out frustrations.

A Prime Example of Stupidity

This article made my blood boil and I wanted to kick the nutsack of any religious person that will come my way. But getting a grip on my sanity (for now), the argument that because someone is Atheist he/she will then immediately be immoral has been proposed so many times that there seems to be no end of it.

This age of morality, the age where we do not have slaves, do not stone people for adultery, do not deal death for apostasy (In most countries at least)... All these enlightenment/s came forth because they were well thought out, argued, reasoned and discussed.

If you actually look at the "moralities" promoted by any goddamned hole-y book, you would find that they incite wars, pedophilia, slavery, subjugation of women, death and almost every act of hatred and violence you could think of.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder! Having a religion and worshiping a deity won't be a cure-all for this mental disease. If that is the case priests won't be the number one doer of this horrific act. Damnit!

You cannot use ONE verse/phrase from the entire hole-y book that you managed to have read in one of its chapters and immediately declare that that's what the hole-y book was all about while you disregard the other fucked up shit they were talking and telling people to do. Because if THAT is the approach you use, then it is simply called CHERRY-PICKING!

My understanding of his article is this:

Atheism = No belief in God, the guiding light and highest example of morality => Leads one to the path of fucking a goat and fondling a child.

Fuck you Averick!