Christopher Hitchens is dead, Merry CHRISTmas!

Merry CHRISTmas, Christopher Hitchens is dead! Not my words, the words of Nyles Seru on the Facebook page “Atheism, Satanism, and Humanism vs Biblical Christianity”.

I've covered Nyles's behaviour elsewhere on my blog, he's a long standing troll and cyberbully. He even admits he doesn't want to debate, only taking pleasure in annoying others. That's bad enough in itself but using the death of another human being in such a despicable way is beneath contempt.

When people berated him he first tried the self-righteous approach, saying how we mock religion, then when that didn't work he returned to his usual modus operandi of pointless trolling, these are just three of the responses he gave.

This is Nyles, the face of a truly vile little man and a shining advert for antitheism if this is what religion breeds.

Christopher Hitchens would likely not care how theists reacted to his death but I feel it indicative of the repugnant nature of many theists that they take such pleasure in the death of another person.

Sadly Nyles is far from alone in this appalling display of celebration, Facebook and Twitter both feature numerous examples of such disregard for human decency. This, from people who profess to be Christians! Gloating at how they believe another human being is now burning in hell, tortured for eternity and for what? For having a mind of his own and the audacity to question things!

Christopher Hitchens was a great writer and thinker, his works were not confined to religion and his breadth of knowledge was remarkable. He battled cancer with a bravery that was both humbling and inspiring, showing a determination that deserves respect regardless of your opinion of his personal views. Ultimately though, he was a human being and nobody should be so morally bankrupt as to gloat at their passing. Even to atheists, life is precious – if anything more so as we don't believe that we're going anywhere afterwards.

I'm a staunch antitheist (no, really, wasn't it obvious?) but my basic humanity would stop me gloating at the death of another person, however much I may dislike them. Personally I despise the current Pope but were he to die I would not be posting on Catholic Facebook pages to rub their noses in it. I would have sympathy for those he left behind and respect that whilst I may not have liked him, others obviously did – I would certainly not seek them out for such a repulsive act.

I guess that means I'm a more compassionate and humane person, which doesn't say much for religion!

Before anybody protests that I mock Christ and don't care about his followers, there is a very large difference. Firstly, Christians don't believe that Christ is dead, they believe he came back, that would be the point of the resurrection. Secondly, Christopher Hitchens demonstrably existed whilst there is scant evidence that Christ did. Thirdly, claiming to be a Christian whilst behaving in such an unChristian way is extremely hypocritical.

This world will be a poorer place without Christopher Hitchens. It would have arguably been a better place without religion. The behaviour of these claimed theists serves to prove it.