Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)
 

Here's the eulogy I gave him on Facebook

One thing is certain: in death, our physical remains reduce to cosmic dust in the wind, permeating the universe through the end of time. What is less certain and perhaps typically reserved for great minds is that our ideas might permeate the minds of critical thinkers everywhere even after we pass, and I think this honor is one that Christopher Hitchens finds well-earned.

RIP, Hitch.

Didn't see that one comin'...

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."
- Hunter S. Thompson

Thought that this was strangely relevant.

I'll bet people are uttering nonsense about "God's judgement", forgetting that they themselves will die one day too.

He will be missed greatly.

You didn't? He's been dying for months, man!

Either way, we all took a big hit today on the advancement of public knowledge. He was one of the few unafraid to take a tough position, having reviewed the facts, and go in to battle for it. In all my time of reading public intellectuals works, I never came across, and probably will not come across, a more thoughtful person.

I was really sad to hear this. The world has lost one of it's great characters and fighters of the good fight. :(

His cancer was really getting the better of him.

I'm just amazed that he could carry on being the public figure he was for so long in the face of death.

A warrior always hopes to die on the battlefield.

True.

And I don't want to bring into this the fact that I disagree with most of the stuff that he said, but I admire the way that he promoted rational thinking and critical thought.

Even if you disagreed with him, you still started to think more intelligently through what he wrote.

I think the world has lost a great man.

I'm curious, what did you disagree with?

I believe in God!

I still think he was an amazing man though.