Christopher Hitchens' Widow Says 'God Never Came Up' on His Deathbed
Christopher Hitchens' widow says the topic of God never came up in the last days of the atheist's life.
In promotion of the late atheist's newly released book, Mortality, his widow Carol Blue went on "CBS This Morning" on Friday and briefly talked about Hitchens' last days and his thoughts about life and death as expressed in the book.
"There were many friends there (at the hospital) and he was the one kind of carrying the conversation, bringing up the various subjects," she said. "God never came up, if anyone's interested. It just was a non-subject."
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Blue added, "If he had had a 'revelation' he would've been the first to share it and he would've done it in a very interesting way but as it happens he didn't."
Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, died last December at the age of 62 from pneumonia, a complication resulting from his stage IV esophageal cancer.
Blue noted that though Hitchens knew he was very sick, he didn't expect to die at that point.
When he checked into the hospital in Houston after catching pneumonia, Hitchens had even written an email to his editor about postponing his column, saying he expected to get out in a few days.
Hitchens' oncologist had told him that he would be in the one percent of people who'd be alive in that shape, according to Blue. But he caught pneumonia, which led to his death.
Mortality, released this week, is a compilation of essays Hitchens wrote about his cancer. He detailed everything from the day he was rushed to the hospital and found out he had cancer to his optimism and hope to be cured.
"It's a kind of contemplation about the sad fact that we're all born to die," Blue summarized, adding that it's a "very intimate narrative."
In the months after his cancer diagnosis to his death, Hitchens continued to affirm atheism and has stated that he would never accept Christ even on his deathbed, at least not while he's lucid.
In a letter to the American Atheists conference in 2011, he stated that as the idea of death becomes more familiar, "pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance" becomes "more hollow and artificial." And instead of the "false consolations of religion," which he equates with superstition, Hitchens said he places his trust in medical science and the support of friends and family.
