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** I feel so sad for this man, he is suffering, I still feel compelled to pray for him, cancer is so hard, difficult, a horrible trial for him to go thru.... any opinions? If you're an atheist would you want prayers.... "just in case it could help" This story is by Alison Flood in the Guardian (UK)




Christopher Hitchens asks fans not to pray for him.

The author and well-known advocate of atheism, who is suffering from cancer, has asked that people refrain from 'troubling deaf heaven' over his plight

Author and vociferous atheist Christopher Hitchens, who was diagnosed with cancer this summer, has appealed to his religious fans and friends not to "trouble deaf heaven" with their "bootless cries" for his recovery.

Writing in October's issue of Vanity Fair, Hitchens revealed that, since he announced in June that he was undergoing chemotherapy on his oeso****us, he has been inundated with thousands of offers of prayers for his health and salvation, from all kinds of religious persuasions. "Devotional websites consecrated special space to the question," said Hitchens. September 20 has been designated "Everybody Pray for Hitchens Day", and he has even found a website inviting people to put money on whether he will renounce his atheism and embrace religion by a certain date, "or continue to affirm unbelief and take the hellish consequences".

"What if I pulled through and the pious faction contentedly claimed that their prayers had been answered? That would somehow be irritating," he wrote. "I don't mean to be churlish about any kind intentions, but when September 20 comes, please do not trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries. Unless, of course, it makes you feel better."

After advocating atheism in his 2007 book God is not Great: The Case Against Religion, Hitchens also pointed out that if he abandoned the principles he has held throughout his life "in the hope of gaining favour at the last minute", it would be something of a "hucksterish choice". "The god who would reward cowardice and dishonesty and punish irreconcilable doubt is among the many gods in which (whom?) I do not believe," he wrote.

Hitchens has also been the recipient of less generous responses from the religious, he said, highlighting one website contribution which asked readers: "Who else feels Christopher Hitchens getting terminal throat cancer [sic] was God's revenge for him using his voice to blaspheme him? ... He's going to writhe in agony and pain and wither away to nothing and then die a horrible agonising death, and THEN comes the real fun, when he's sent to HELLFIRE forever to be tortured and set afire."

But, asked Hitchens, "why not a thunderbolt for yours truly, or something similarly awe-inspiring? The vengeful deity has a sadly depleted arsenal if all he can think of is exactly the cancer that my age and former 'lifestyle' would suggest that I got," he wrote, also musing on the question of why, if "god awards the appropriate cancers", infants contract leukemia and devout people die young and in pain, while "Bertrand Russell and Voltaire, by contrast, remained spry until the end, as many psychopathic criminals and tyrants have also done".

He assured his "Christian correspondent" that his "so far uncancerous throat" is not "at all the only organ with which I have blasphemed ... And even if my voice goes before I do, I shall continue to write polemics against religious delusions, at least until it's hello darkness my old friend. In which case, why not cancer of the brain? As a terrified, half-aware imbecile, I might even scream for a priest at the close of business, though I hereby state while I am still lucid that the entity thus humiliating itself would not in fact be 'me'. (Bear this in mind, in case of any later rumours or fabrications.)"

consider this warning Paul gave: "See then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off" (Rom. 11:22)

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HOD,

Your prayers would be useful only to you, but as he said if they make you feel better then do it.

It certainly won't hurt him. and I am sure it is coming from a good place in your heart.

It is very sad to see anyone with an illness such as cancer. My heart goes out to him and his family. I will be hoping for remission.
Hitch is a man of passionate convictions. He sincerely believes there is no god to whom to pray.

You may pray if you want, and HoD, your good wishes are appreciated, but Hitch is under no assumption that your prayers will help or hurt him.

He is facing possible death with the strength of his convictions. The end of life is a lonely, personal struggle against the dying of the light, and other peoples' thoughts might be of some temporary comfort, but in the end they do no good whatever in the extension of that life.

Hitch gives you permission not to worry about him. What happens to him will happen. I'm sure he is fighting as hard as he can, that's all any of us can do.

Still, he's on record as appreciating your good wishes.

You might be interested to know there are people praying for his painful death, as well, for his presumptuousness in displaying religion for what it is. A fiction.
you are right about death being painful and lonely. My church group visits those that have no one, and needed someone to visit them in nursing homes. Being with someone 'til the end is VERY hard on the living too. One must stay strong.

as far as praying for someone to have a painful death..... Bad karma! My spouse is Chinese, and I've heard wild stories about bad karma!
eastern religions are serious about not bring crap back on yourself through bad thoughts like that.
quote:
Being with someone 'til the end is VERY hard on the living too. One must stay strong.


Absolutely. I was the angel of mercy (hospice) nurse for my professional life.
But you know one thing that I have learned, is that at that hour of death- there are very few atheists.
no disrespect to atheists, just an educated observation.
And, to see a believer joining his sufferings with Christ is a truly life changing and beautiful thing.
Many many blessings to be had, to be with the dying.
quote:
Originally posted by House of David:
I can't help it, I will pray for him.


Why?

I'm sure even Hitchens would agree that there are so many bigger problems on this earth that one man suffering from cancer. We will ALL die someday. It's inevitable.

If prayer actually worked (and it most certainly does not) why not pray for an end to hunger? World peace? Economic recovery?

Prayer does nothing but absolve you of responsibility to help your fellow man. "I said a prayer so I did my part!" That accomplishes nothing.

Sending a single dollar to the Peace Corps, Red Cross or American Cancer Society will do infinitely more than a million prayers.
No offense taken here but you should know that people who actually call themselves atheists only comprise about 2 to 3% of the population and probably much less in the Shoals area. Lots more are agnostic or "non-religious" Its no surprise that you might have never come across one.

Personally, as long as I have my wits about me, I'd be just as likely to re-believe in the Easter Bunny just before my death as re-believe in omnipotent invisible men.
Ever,

I never said, ""I said a prayer so I did my part!" That's not how I think or feel.

I don't know why there is world hunger and world conflict. I don't have all the answers. Wish I did.

I do volunteer work at nursing homes. I'm also
and advocate for Ending Domestic Violence.
I work with a group of social works to bring awareness. I believe in Prayer with Action!


I encourage everyone to visit nnedv.org
EG, you might be surprised at how many of us Christians put our actions where our mouth is, so to speak. Most Christians I know do what they can to make the world a better place.

Some of us volunteer at nursing homes, some of us give to homeless shelters or domestic violence shelters. Some of us volunteer to work with underprivelidged children. And I'd be willing to bet almost all of us have reached out to a neighbor in need.

These are all things I have done, and most if not all of my Christian friends have done some of these same things, and more.
quote:
Nothing wrong with that, of course, but that does not reflect the views of vast number of those who believe in the power of prayer



Sorry if I misunderstood you. And I do understand that non-believers can and often do, do good works. But I believe that without prayer, those works are finite. WITH prayer, those works will have a much farther reaching "echo", for the doer of good deeds, for the one on the receiving end, and perhaps even for the next generations.
quote:
Originally posted by O No!:
...And I do understand that non-believers can and often do, do good works. But I believe that without prayer, those works are finite...


Your good works are just as finite as my good works. Merely believing otherwise doesn't make it so. The burden of proof is yours to demonstrate the efficacy of prayer. Without it, it's an empty and subjective statement, with no "echo" of truth.

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