Christopher Hitchens Stares Death in Face: Does He See God?

(CBS) They say there are no atheists in a fox hole. But author Christopher Hitchens is in a pretty deep hole - stage IV cancer - and as he stares into the abyss of death he says he still doesn't see God.

Hitchens, a long time Vanity Fair writer, famed atheist and author of "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," recently sat down for a two part interview with the Australian news program "Lateline."

Hitchens says a cancerous tumor in his esophagus has spread and he is now taking high doses of chemotherapy and may soon undergo radiation treatments.

"I think the word 'curable' doesn't really apply, but it can be treatable," he told reporter Tony Jones. "What kind of life and how much of it I have is my big preoccupation now."

But many others are preoccupied with Hitchens' beliefs and whether his sickness would shake them.

"Looking death more closely in the eye, as I have been doing, doesn't teach you much that you didn't already know," he says. "It isn't as if I didn't already know that some people, whether they're sick or whether they're well, derive great comfort from the thought that they have a savior, that they're a member of a flock, for example."

But, he continued, "I'm not a sheep."

The problem, as Hitchens sees it, is when the faithful try to spread their wings.

"As long as they don't try and make me believe it, as long as they don't try and have it taught in schools, as long as they don't want the government to subsidize it, as long as they don't want to block scientific research in its name or because of it, then that's fine," he says. "But will they requite this bargain? Of course not... They can't be happy 'till everyone else believes it too, and that's sinister, in my opinion, and creepy."

Hitchens did say he is grateful for the many people that are praying for his recovery even if he doesn't believe it will help.

As for those praying that he "not only have an agonizing death, but then be reborn to have an agonizing and horrible eternal life of torture," Hitchens says, "Well, good on you. See you there."

Read or watch the full interview at Lateline.