Gods and Death per Christopher Hitchens

"We are unlikely to cease making gods or inventing ceremonies to please them for as long as we are afraid of death, or of the dark, and for as long as we persist in self-centeredness.  That could be a lengthy stretch of time."

-Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011, an atheist and an antitheist, a columnist and literary critic, an author, essayist and journalist.

Bruegel / Hitchens

Pieter Bruegel:  "Because the world is so faithless, I go my way in mourning."  PB (1525-69) was a masterful Flemish painter, mostly of rural scenes.

The highly regarded English writer Ian McEwan was in the Texas hospital with Chritstopher Hitchens during his last days and saw him linked, online, to a celebration of his life in London.  "We helped him out of bed and into a chair and set my laptop in front of him . . . and what we heard was astounding, and for Christopher, uplifting.  It was the noise of 2,000 voices small-talking before the event," Mr. McEwan wrote.  "Christopher grinned and raised a thin arm in salute."