Remembering Christopher Hitchens
It has been 12 years since we lost this human treasure
Every year at this time I am reminded of two events. My late mother’s birthday, the birthday of my wife’s late mother, and the death of my dear friend Christopher Hitchens, 12 years ago. I usually spend some time watching clips of some of his amazing talks. Here is one I shared today on twitter, an awe inspiring message about the beauty of science, and the need to maintain doubt and wonder:
While perusing clips I found an old clip of my tribute to Christopher at the memorial service on April 20, 2012 put on by Vanity Fair in New York City at the Great Hall of Cooper Union. I was humbled, and frankly somewhat embarrassed to lead off a service that included Stephen Fry, Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Tom Stoppard, Christopher Buckley, Olivia Wilde, Sean Penn, and so many others. For that honor I thank Christopher’s widow, Carol Blue. While I was not of the same public stature as the others I have listed, I was happy to be able to relate to the audience Christopher’s love of science, which was inextricably tied to his continued reverence for skepticism and doubt. In any case, for better or worse, here is my tribute. It brings back pleasant memories for me of earlier times, and the great good fortune I had to be his friend.
Lawrence Krauss was truly the most natural pick to be the opening of the Hitchens memorial especially since most of the others where not scientists, and certainly who would have known Hitchens better that Lawrence...Hitchens, Dawkins and Krauss have been the faces of logical anti-God(s) thinking based on facts this world has ever known...great and appropriate introduction by Lawrence..nicely and respectfully done..great we had 3, but now just two left to carry on Chris's work...best..Richard
"I was happy to be able to relate to the audience Christopher’s love of science, which was inextricably tied to his continued reverence for skepticism and doubt."
Ha, ha! Skepticism and doubt is certainly not how I would describe Hitchens. I'm very skeptical of such a claim! :-)
I prefer to think of Hitchens as a brilliant intellectual entertainer. He was really good at that, and I admired his skill at engaging an audience.