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Christopher Hitchens: ‘It’s not a good cancer to get’

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The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg spoke to Christopher Hitchens at his home in Washington, D.C. Currently undergoing treatments for esophageal cancer, Hitchens looks slim and appears to be losing his hair, yet he speaks with his characteristic forcefulness and conviction.

Goldberg digs right into religiosity, asking, ‘Do you find it insulting for people to pray for you?’ Hitchens responds, ‘No, no, I take it kindly,’ as long as the prayers are for his recovery. Goldberg focuses the questions we see here -- there will be other clips, the Atlantic promises -- on the possibility of Hitchens having a religious conversion or awakening. Hitchens does not consider it likely; his response jumps from David Hume to Voltaire to Wooster and Jeeves.

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Partway through the conversation, Goldberg and Hitchens are joined by Martin Amis, who describes himself as ‘very slightly to the right of Hitch on God,’ pushing the conversation back toward the question of the Divine.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

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