A Titan fell this Thursday past. Slain by the stone from his proverbial David - esophageal cancer. However in this parable David isn't to be praised. We can clearly see the culture that the David myths represented were a cancer to progressive civilization. Analogous to Christopher Hitchens' struggle with mortality as well as his fierce opposition to backward practices inspired by superstition and medieval beliefs.
But in no way was Hitch to be analogous to Goliath the Philistine whom David slay - Philistine is in literary terms a measure of one's anti-intellectualism - except in the image of the great and mighty warrior. One might say that Hitch, in his fight with both the terminal illness and the disease of faith, embodied this image and took the fight all the way to the end. Even as the closing notes played nearing the finale of his dance with death, Hitch remained steadfast in his stance against religion as well as cancer - reason and science being two of the primary weapons in his arsenal against both.
Christopher Hitchens has been one of the greatest generals in the army of reason, as Richard Dawkins put it 'a valiant horseman'. He has equipped us with the weapons of reason, science, free thought, critical thinking, and courage, even in the face of the unknown. I salute you Hitch.
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