National Post, Dec 20th A17

Good old Father De Souza is expressing his hatred for Hitchens after he has died - ie doing exactly what he is accusing Hitchens of having done. Having read many of De Souza's columns I suspect that De Souza's real reason for the outburst of hatred is Hitchens criticism of Mother Teresa, the absolutely perfect Catholic and future saint. For De Souza, criticizing Catholicism is the ultimate sin. He ends his column with the hope that Hitchens now knows God's mercy. I hope so too as there is obviously no mercy, forgiveness, compassion or understanding in De Souza's cold, rigid heart.

My letter published in National Post - Jan 15th

Hitchen's article is a valid comment that the world is very arbitrary in its treatment of us human beings. He correctly points out that disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis are indiscriminate in their application to those in their way. Unfortunately he always writes with the implied subtext that because bad things happen to good people, and prayers seldom result in a receipt of a shiny new red wagon, there is no God and that religion is a fraud. No so. Religion is the study and work of how to deal with that arbitrary world. It is there to help us deal with the vicissitudes of life, to make our pitiful lives better, to help us ameliorate the disasters of nature, and to help us help others deal those disasters. It gives us an opportunity to distinguish ourselves from animals, to consider or experience the unity of man and our spiritual relationship with God or universal intelligence and with our fellow man. The world's arbitrariness proves that the world is arbitrary, nothing more.

Hitchens on page A21 of the National Post

Mr. Hitchens, and I use the term "Mr." loosely, describes Israel and perhaps the West Bank as a mad attempt by messianic Jews to steal the land of other people. Here he is stealing the ideas of death-worshipping, hate-filled Palestinians and their ideological cousins the Islamists. Hitchens should keep his discussions to religion where he can't yet be proven to be wrong.