Stop indulging in Christopher Hitchens's illness

Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing

The news that Christopher Hitchens, the world's most controversial writer and a fanatical atheist, has cancer, is sadly resulting in a ghastly display of indulgence among those debating whether to pray or not to pray for him.

Surely the answer to that clever-clever (or "clever-stupid" as the man himself would say) debate is to pray if you believe, and do so quietly and without banging on about it, and, er, not to pray if you don't ...