Peter Hitchens on His Journey From Atheism to Faith

Peter Hitchens, the brother of Christopher Hitchens, started down the same path as Christopher; Radicalism, Atheism and Journalism. But Peter took a different turn in his journey. His early days are recorded in this biographical sketch:

”British journalist and author Peter Hitchens is famous for his bold & obstinate style (written or spoken) mainly on politics and social conservatism issues. He was born on 28 October, 1958 in Malta. His early education has been done at The Leys School followed by the Oxford College of Further Education. Then he went to University of York to study politics from 1970 to 1973.

Along with studying politics at York University, Peter Hitchens had been a very active member of Trotskyist International Socialists (1969-1975). Once during the lectures at the university he came late and when asked for the reason he mentioned, “I was too busy starting a revolution”. Peter deliberately describes himself as a Burkean conservative. Pursuing his revolutionary and conservative ideas he started to work at extreme-left in left-wing politics.

In an interview recorded on YouTube, Peter Hitchens engaged in this exchange:



Snippets from the video:

As an Atheist did you ever have doubts about Atheism?

“Not for a long time, no. We were armored against; we were full of our own righteousness; we knew what was Right; we knew we were Right; we knew we were Good; we defined our own Goodness.”

Christian friends?

“No I wouldn’t want any. I found the whole thing repellent.” Why? “There’s a lot of scorn in Revolutionary Socialism, a lot of feeling that you are the vanguard, you are the people who know best, and that everybody else is ignorant and stupid. And you see that scorn very clearly in the New Atheists and the way in which they treat their opponents, not with any kind of respect at all. They still act as if Christianity is a kind of stupid aberration that only an idiot could follow.”

Too late for revival of Christianity in Britain?

“I think that’s probably so, I think it is too late. I’m not allowed to despair, but if I were allowed to, I would. It’s gone a long way. Christianity has been very badly damaged here, to the extent that... people don’t know anything about it at all, who don’t know the bible stories, who never opened a bible, been inside a church, have no conception of what Christianity is or means."

How do you feel about having led others to become Atheist?

“It’s my fault. It’s one of things, it seems to me, that there’s no real path back.”
[Emphasis Added]

He goes on to say that he began to fear being judged for what he had done. “But fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”.

Some Peter Hitchens quotes:

“In the 1960s we chose the wrong future and we are still living with that.”

“ If I never again had to read or write a word about homosexuals, I would be very happy. I really don't want to know what other people do in their bedrooms. But these days they really, really want us all to know. And, more important, they insist that we approve.”