Tribute to Great Intellectual!

How sad is that for the human condition to be trapped culturally, socially and religiously.

Cheers, and I know many close to me whom leading miserable lives , lost souls not being felt satisfied in life and just waiting the grave to go to heaven.

But sadly enough I can't speak my voice up any louder than a murmur.

Glad you are happy and at one with the world..

It radically effected me,as recently being diagnosed a Bipolar ,when I was religious life was really a pressure on me, because as a religious Muslim you live your life per the rules ,which was shackling me to be honest.

When I recently started to doubt and ask (Due to some very high creativity episodes we bipolar have), it just went escalating.

I mean it changed my view on life radically, never felt so happy to be alive.

And not exaggerating in any way.

I am intrigued..

How did it affect you personaly ?

Apart from becoming a "freethinker" would you say you have also become an atheist ?

@britexpat At the contrary Hitchens' voice was widely heard, many woke up by it's sound and including me.

Also we can only hope for the best for the African and middle eastern countries.

Knowing that there are more growing numbers of Freethinkers especially in Jordan and Syria.

But we can only contemplate the misfortunes of people in Somalia and such hell holes.

Now back to the topic ..

Sadly, many such as Hitchens are now coming to the end of their lives ..

You have hijacked a lot of users' topics and posts , and we got enough with you ruining the conversation and hijacking everything then leaving the conversation.

You either got something to say ,or you stop irritating everyone's topic.

Tahsinmim will you please literary buzz off and stop ruining conversations?

Don't really want to get into the Afghan thing again but being born a women in that country really is living the life of less than a dog in most countries in the world. A lifelong prison sentence.

Then why not? I am pretty sure when the bloody murdering religious warlords bugger off , then they can resume their life!

Or are you saying we should allow these monsters to take control over the women and girls and children and beheading/stoning whoever they want, and squashing every Human right out of the people ?

I think not!

Have the events of the past few years allowed "whole cities to throw off the medieval rule of the Taliban and to resume a life where their choices in even the most private matters are once again their own. "

I think not !

@britexpat they can, but they haven't got it wrong in this subject, now you as a little girl in a village in Afghanistan, would you want to be ruled by Mullas and religious warlords or would you like to see your country prosper with freedom and love knowing that your economy is growing with the help of many other foreigners?

And you can't deny the critical role of the Soviets when they installed more schools and universities and provided training and education, jobs and economy!

So even great intelectuals can get it wrong :O(

The only reason Afghanistan was bombed into the ruins of ignorance back at the Soviet invasion ,it was because of the Warlords ,Mullahs and villagers which mostly consisted of religious people.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan the main reasons were to install freedom at some extent and showing their capacity to the rest of the European countries (Mainly Britain and France) , giving rights for women to vote, girls and boys to go to school and setting up local governments.

The Mullahs and religious peoples went to the streets of Kabul and killed all the soviet soldiers and beheaded many of the advisers and took the girls out of school back to the farms.

And it this cycle is still happening over and over until we totally get rid off them.

They came back in some areas and are just waiting for the rest of the troops to leave to start again. The job was never finished...

Yes a great debater. Did not agree with many of his views, but he gave the opportunity to think and discuss..May he Rest in Peace..

QDCLover: Not wishing to divert the topic.. "The effect of the bombardment has been to allow whole cities to throw off the medieval rule of the Taliban and to resume a life where their choices in even the most private matters are once again their own. "

I think you will find that this is far from the truth. Taliban and Warlords still hold sway in most of the country.

One of his good quotes

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Cliche has a terrible grip on some minds.

"Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age" was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals.

The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed OUT of the Stone Age.

The effect of the bombardment has been to allow whole cities to throw off the medieval rule of the Taliban and to resume a life where their choices in even the most private matters are once again their own. "

------

So true, no more beheadings, no more stoning women to death and so on.

The famous Hitchslapes has awaken many of us out of their dark cave ideologies , Many lost souls are now free because of his mighty brave.

Rest in peace dear!

Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist whose career spanned more than four decades.

Hitchens, often referred to colloquially as "Hitch", contributed to New Statesman, The Nation, The Atlantic, The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He was an author of twelve books and five collections of essays, and concentrated on the subjects of politics, literature and religion. A prominent staple of talk shows and lecture circuits, his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded and controversial figure. Known for his contrarian stance on a number of issues, he excoriated such public figures as Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Initially describing himself as a socialist, Hitchens began his break from the established political left after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left to the Rushdie Affair. The September 11 attacks "exhilarated" him, strengthening his internationalist embrace of an interventionist foreign policy, and his criticism of what he called "fascism with an Islamic face". His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, although Hitchens insisted he was not "a conservative of any kind", and his friend Ian McEwan described him as representing the anti-totalitarian left.

A noted critic of religion and a self-described antitheist, he said that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in God were correct", but that "an antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion."According to Hitchens, the concept of a god or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom; and, that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining human civilization. His anti-religion polemic, God Is Not Great, sold over 500,000 copies.

Hitchens died on 15 December 2011, from complications arising from oesophageal cancer, a disease that he acknowledged was likely due to his lifelong predilection for heavy smoking and drinking. His death prompted tributes and eulogies from a range of public figures, including Tony Blair, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss, Martin Amis, James Fenton, Robert Barron (priest) and Stephen Fry.

This will not get many replies, most will not have heard of him.

this guy is an athiest

if you're gonna discuss about him, tahsin will say:

hijacked by an athiest

A titan when it came to debating. He made some very interesting points.