Barry's Blog

Last week we looked at Christopher Hitchens's recent book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and discussed briefly Hitchens's failure to deal with Christianity in a fair and unbiased manner. Despite the book's shortcomings, it has become the biggest surprise of the beach-reading season. It wasn't supposed to be a blockbuster. Its publisher, Twelve, a fledgling imprint owned by France's Lagardere SCA, initially printed a modest 40,000 copies. Today, roughly two months after the book went on sale, there are 300,000 copies in print, and demand has been so strong that booksellers and wholesalers were unable to get copies a short time after it hit stores, creating what the publishing industry calls a "dark week."

Rival publisher Da Capo Press, owned by Perseus Books LLC, has already signed Hitchens to edit, "The Portable Atheist," a compilation of essays by such writers as Mark Twain and Charles Darwin, and will be published this fall. "This is atheism's moment," says David Steinberger, Perseus's CEO. "Mr Hitchens has written the category killer, and we're excited about having the next book."

Booksellers believe Hitchens has helped his own cause significantly by staging colorful debates with various religious leaders. But his incendiary statement about the late Jerry Falwell recently on "Anderson Cooper 360," caught my attention. Mr. Hitchens was asked if he thought Mr. Falwell would go to heaven. His response: "No. And I think it's a pity there isn't a Hell for him to go to." I thought the response interesting and revealing. For as much vitriol and disdain Hitchens had for Falwell, and what he represented, and as much as he might want to see Falwell punished for his supposedly oppressive, narrow beliefs about Christianity, he knew he couldn't really "condemn" him. For Hitchens realized that to be a consistent "atheist," categories of thought and belief such as Heaven and Hell are nonsensical. And to admit that Falwell should go to Hell (note his words, "It's a pity there isn't a hell for him to go to."), would necessarily imply that there is a Heaven. Hitchen's is way too cunning and bright to make such a glaring contradiction.

But Hitchens's comment reminds me that the Christian faith is not exclusively about this life, but also another life, another world to come. And while Hitchens and his ilk happily dismiss all religious "faith" as subjective, wishful thinking, the Christian view of the world cherishes the deeply held belief that this world is not all that there is, because this present world is passing away (I Corinthians 7:31). To those who would charge that Christianity is mere escapism, C.S. Lewis reminds us: "We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning Heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about 'pie in the sky,' and of being told that we are trying to 'escape' from the duty of making a happy world here and now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But either there is 'pie in the sky' or there is not. If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced..."

Does not our entire human experience, both the pleasures and the sufferings, cry out for something more? For something that this world cannot satisfy? Is it actually "reasonable" to believe that this world is all there is? T.S. Eliot once observed: "I had rather walk, as I do, in daily terror of eternity, than to feel that this was only a children's game in which all the contestants would get equally worthless prizes in the end."

That is something for Hitchens, and us, to ponder... 

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow