News that raging atheist Christopher Hitchens canceled his book tour for his Hitch-22 memoir to deal with throat cancer, has prompted some hot debate on conversions in dire distress. (Yes, I know, the phrase is "deathbed conversions," but, please, he's just begun treatment.)

Believers such as Francis Phillips in The Catholic Herald, muses that Hitchens, the "Scourge of God" might change his tune on the almighty and fire up some prayers.

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Phillips is promptly blasted by comments who call the flippant conversion post "self-centered, childishness" and by atheists who point out that perhaps the lesson to be found is in how many atheists go confidently to the grave certain that it is, indeed, the end.

Rod Dreher at Beliefnet.com suggests folks join in

... praying for his healing, body and soul. Somehow, I doubt the author of God Is Not Great would object; cancer has a way of humbling one in this regard. Anyway, he suffers, and has more to suffer, and needs us to stand with him in whatever way we can.

George Berkin, who writes for the online N.J.com site of the Star-Ledger New Jersey Voices -- blogs by staff and local opinion leaders -- comes down on the God side of the scale with a much heavier hand.

It would be a huge blow to Hitchens' ego (as it is to any ego) to admit that he's been wrong these many years. But Hitchens' rebellion against God has been so public that God may require a very public humbling.

But maybe God is doing it this way because he desires that Hitchens give up his "god," that is, Hitchens' pride in being different from the run-of-the-mill mortal. Maybe God is doing it this way so that Hitchens can encounter the God he has been denying for so long, before eternity sets in.

At Atheist Nexus, unbelievers are ignoring the prayer brigades (except for the insulting remarks about "humbling") but stepping forward with their own best wishes. One poster, identified as Asa Watcher, writes.

...abandonment of faith does not mean we've abandoned hope. It does not mean we abandon respect and love for this guy. It does not mean we deny the deep human feelings of empathy that we are capable of, or the belief that CH can get a feeling for our collective hurt, our broken hearts. It is nice to think that, together, we can make things better for CH. And, really, there is no reason to think that we can't. Nothing wrong with sharing the strength of our positive thoughts.

Of course, there probably are no qualitative studies on deathbed conversions -- for obvious reasons. The studies tend to show people don't necessarily take a sudden turn to a spirituality they never held before, although some fallen-away believers may revive the faith they once followed and find comfort and strength within it.

Will you be sending your best -- be it prayers or thoughts, to Hitchens? And what is your view on how conversion works? Is it a sudden reversal in a time of trauma or a slow reworking of your soul? Can it be both?