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Below is a description of the funeral of [[New Atheism|new atheist]] [[Christopher Hitchens]] given by the British newspaper ''The Globe and Mail'':  

Below is a description of the funeral of [[New Atheism|new atheist]] [[Christopher Hitchens]] given by the British newspaper ''The Globe and Mail'':  

{{cquote|[[Religion]] was present, too. That was the most interesting part. Hitch’s brother read from St. Paul, on hope. [[Francis Collins]], a devout Christian and former head scientist the Human Genome Project, admitted he was better at piano than speech. So he played a composition of his own, which he said was what his final conversation with Hitch had sounded like. They had spoken of an experimental gene therapy for cancer. Hitch had participated as a test subject, even though the protocol had come too late to save him. (He wanted to help.) Though he didn’t dwell on it, Mr. Collins suggested that the beautiful music came from God. Plainly, atheist funerals don’t mean exclusion of the faithful living.

{{cquote|[[Religion]] was present, too. That was the most interesting part. [[Peter Hitchens|Hitch’s brother]] read from St. Paul, on hope. [[Francis Collins]], a devout Christian and former head scientist the Human Genome Project, admitted he was better at piano than speech. So he played a composition of his own, which he said was what his final conversation with Hitch had sounded like. They had spoken of an experimental gene therapy for cancer. Hitch had participated as a test subject, even though the protocol had come too late to save him. (He wanted to help.) Though he didn’t dwell on it, Mr. Collins suggested that the beautiful music came from God. Plainly, atheist funerals don’t mean exclusion of the faithful living.

But religion was perhaps most present in the memorial’s language. The readers spoke of spirit, transcendence, soul. These words are from faith. Their meaning is bound up with biblical poetry. Hitch’s great argument was that we must strive to see the sometimes hidden moral evil in those poems, going beyond them, to a beauty that lives much deeper. There, religion’s barbaric legacy can be stamped out so that love might flourish. Perfect execution of this may be impossible. (For Hitch, that fact necessitated “contempt for our own weakness.”) But like Robin Hood, we can steal faith’s gold, its unique terminology for some of the most mysterious human aspects.<ref>[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-spirituality-of-hitchs-atheist-funeral/article4103156/ The spirituality of Hitch's atheist funeral] by AIDAN JOHNSON, Globe and Mail</ref>}}

But religion was perhaps most present in the memorial’s language. The readers spoke of spirit, transcendence, soul. These words are from faith. Their meaning is bound up with biblical poetry. Hitch’s great argument was that we must strive to see the sometimes hidden moral evil in those poems, going beyond them, to a beauty that lives much deeper. There, religion’s barbaric legacy can be stamped out so that love might flourish. Perfect execution of this may be impossible. (For Hitch, that fact necessitated “contempt for our own weakness.”) But like Robin Hood, we can steal faith’s gold, its unique terminology for some of the most mysterious human aspects.<ref>[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-spirituality-of-hitchs-atheist-funeral/article4103156/ The spirituality of Hitch's atheist funeral] by AIDAN JOHNSON, Globe and Mail</ref>}}