Jesus Christ! Christopher Hitchens is a tough read. Yes it’s true that “god is not great.” It’s also true that “religion does poison everything”. I think it’s safe to say that everyone in this room would wave that banner proudly. I do stick to my belief that Hitchens is a tough read. So what are my options to deal with this problem?

I guess I could have contacted Christopher Hitchens and ask him to write a “Dummy’s Guide to Freethinking” or a “Dummy’s Guide to being a smarty pants, or a “Dummy’s Guide to being outspoken and standing by what you believe”

Well, I’m glad I didn’t do that!

I feel like I owe the memory of Hitchens a little debt. The only way I can repay that debt is….

To learn new vocabulary words.

Brush up on my history lessons.

Use reason in my thinking and my opinion.

Speak out when the situation calls for it.

Don’t back down from a fight with close minded people.

Pass this knowledge down my daughter to give her a leg up when she has to make a decision in her life about her own spirituality and to stand by her decisions whatever they might be.

It’s not up to people like Christopher Hitchens to dummy it DOWN….It’s more important for people like me to try to elevate myself UP to his level.

Christopher Hitchens was much more than a great writer. He was a fantastic debater also. How many of you (like myself) have spent hours and hours watching video clips on You Tube of Hitchens crushing  so called religious leaders or experts. You can’t help it! I would rather be crucified on a tree than debate Hitchens about religion.

One of my personal favorite books is Hitchens’ “Portable Atheist” anthology. We are treated to the voices of people like: Hobbs, Spinoza,Mill,Darwin,Lovecraft,Twain, Mencken, Orwell,Russell,Dawkins and so on. There’s the history lesson I was talking about earlier.

Growing up Catholic, I think the thing that totally blew me away about Hitchens was his exposure of Mother Theresa. Man that took a huge set of balls. They wanted to make her a saint for christ sake.

Saying out loud in public that you are a fan of Christopher Hitchens or that you are an atheist or that you lead a secular life or that you are a freethinker also takes a huge pair of balls.

Ladies you can come up with your own anatomical analogy for that.

Well, I just want to say out loud that I am proud to call my self one of “those people.