The death of an avowed atheist.

The death was announced, today, of Christopher Hitchins - outspoken author, atheist, and alcoholic.  The late Mr Hitchins famously took on Mr Tony B Liar (former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), in a televised debate last year in Toronto, Canada, linking God to a "celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea".  Mind you, taking on as unprincipled a person as T.B. (no direct connection with a terrible disease - that's tuberculosis!) with his limited knowledge, and lack of theological education, seems to me to be on a par with Prof Stephen Hawking taking me on in a debate about quantum physics!  No prizes for guessing who would win that debate!

I've mentioned the well-known "Pascal's wager" on this blog before, but the death of such a prominent atheist prompts me to refer to it again. 

In its least-embellished form, it states that if a disciple of Jesus dies, and discovers that all that (s)he has believed - concerning the incarnation, the miracles of Jesus, His death and resurrection, the nature of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, etc., etc. - has turned out to be wrong, then that person will have nothing to lose! 

On the other hand if, when the atheist dies, (s)he discovers that the Gospel record is true, that the historic doctrines of the Christian are valid, that there really is a heaven and a hell, that the God of infinite love is also the God of absolute justice, etc., etc., then that atheist has lost everything and finds him/herself consigned to a lost eternity.

Christopher Hitchins now knows the truth!