One of my personal heroes, Christopher Hitchens, died two years ago today and, as I noted in an April post, the world has been a less interesting place since he passed.

In November of 2010, in Plano, Texas, Hitchens debated William Dembski, a mathematician, philosopher and theologian.  The topic was “Does a good God exist?”  The audience was largely made up of students from Prestonwood Christian Academy.  In this clip, Hitchens delivers his closing remarks.  In his life, the man could infuriate as often as he could inspire, but here–clearly ill, but far from finished–he truly inspires.

“I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don’t know anything like enough yet. That I haven’t understood enough, that I can’t know enough, that I’m always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldn’t have it any other way….Take the risk of thinking for yourself.  Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.”