I’m sure most of you remember atheist Christopher Hitchens. He debated William Lane Craig on our campus back in 2009. Now Hitchens has cancer and is battling for his life instead of fending off Christians.

Atheism leads to Christianity

Recently, I became aware of something that I had not known before. Christopher has a brother, Peter Hitchens, who has become a Christian. I found out about him by accident because I was scanning YouTube for interesting videos. I stumbled upon a video of a British man arguing intelligently and forcefully against abortion. The video was called “Peter Hitchens Owns Atheist on Abortion.” Being the pro-life Christian that I am, I decided to check the video out. The last name made me think of atheist Christopher Hitchens, but I didn’t know if the two were related.

After listening to Peter’s excellent arguments against abortion in the video and doing further research, I found that this was indeed Christopher’s brother. Unlike Christopher, Peter is a Christian who used to be an atheist. Like his brother, who wrote a book against God called “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” Peter has since written a book in defense of God called “The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith.”Now that’s what I call a sibling rivalry of biblical proportions. No wonder they have been dubbed “the battling Hitchens brothers.”

Two brothers, two different views

So, we have two brothers who were brought up in a Christian home, and yet one is an atheist and the other is a former atheist turned Christian. This is a fascinating story for so many reasons because of the theological, sociological, and emotional issues that these men must face as siblings. It’s one thing to have a family member that does not have faith, but it’s a different thing to have a family member that is actively hostile to your faith from an atheist point of view.

In an article posted on CBN.com, Peter said that his brother might be a “repressed seeker” because he spends so much time debating and attacking religion. Christopher, of course, denies this, but sometimes people do fight what they secretly are seeking on a subconscious level.

Peter also told CBN that he and his brother “don’t get on particularly well,” although in a piece for Daily Mail Online called “How I Found God and Peace with my Atheist Brother,” he explained how he has resolved not to have any more debates with him, “because of the danger that they might turn into gladiatorial combat in which nothing would be resolved and enmity could be created. I am 58. He is 60. We do not necessarily have time for another brothers’ war.”

Peter Hitchens speaks out against atheist brother

I can appreciate this sentiment. But, this doesn’t mean Peter has recoiled into obscurity and will not challenge his brother’s ideology. In fact, one of the most powerful statements against his brother’s views was:
“There’s a difficulty: if you take a public position, a very public position, then you brick yourself up in a tower and its got arrow slits instead of windows. You can chuck missiles out of it, but you can’t get out yourself.” That is an excellent observation describing how Christopher and other atheists, like Richard Dawkins, go about attacking what they barely understand on any rational level. They seem trapped by their own method of attack.

That’s some pretty good reasoning from a former atheist who once said, “I set fire to my Bible on the playing fields of my Cambridge boarding school one bright, windy spring afternoon in 1967. I was 15 years old.”

I guess with prayer and the moving of God’s Spirit, Peter grew up. And perhaps one day, his brother will too, before cancer ushers him into the presence of the God he has so vehemently denied. I am encouraged by the story of Peter’s life, and I intend to pick up his book and perhaps review it for The Chimes in the near future. Biola has already heard from the atheist side of the Hitchens family. Perhaps our campus can arrange to hear from the Christian side of the family.