"It's not a good cancer to get."

Whether he is stating the obvious or not, I respect and admire a man who has not sold out his convictions and "found god" at the eleventh hour. 


This is an excerpt from an April 9 article, linked below.

One physician who is taking an active interest in Hitchens's treatment is Francis Collins, the former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute in the US. Collins is now the director of America's National Institutes of Health. He is also an evangelical Christian, the author of a bestselling book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. He and Hitchens had actually debated religion publicly before Hitchens fell ill and have become good friends. ''I won't say he doesn't pray for me, because I think he probably does; but he doesn't discuss it with me.'' Hitchens's attitude to people praying for him could be described as a mixture of polite gratitude for their consideration and a determined refusal to let it sway his opinions. There have been various studies, he says, on whether or not intercessionary prayer works. ''And one is not surprised to find they don't.'' On the contrary, the most comprehensive study concluded that it could even have a detrimental effect, causing those who knew they were being prayed for to become depressed when they didn't get better, ''because they thought they were letting the side down''.




Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/christopher-hitchens-dont-pray-for-me-20110408-1d6gf.html#ixzz1JiJ1DXWw