Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was an English intellectual, polemicist, and socio-political critic, who expressed himself as an author, orator, essayist and columnist. He wrote, co-wrote, edited or co-edited over 30 books, including five of essays on culture, politics and literature. He took American citizenship in 2007. His confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded public intellectual and a controversial figure. He contributed to New Statesman, The Nation, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, Free Inquiry, The Spectator and Vanity Fair. Hitchens described himself as an anti-theist, who saw all religions as false, harmful and authoritarian. He argued for free expression and scientific discovery, and asserted that it was superior to religion as an ethical code of conduct for human civilisation. He also advocated separation of church and state. The dictum "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence" has become known as Hitchens's razor.