If Christian author Larry Taunton, the man who wrote the biography entitled "The Faith of Christopher Hitchens," is to be believed, then the famed atheist Hitchens contemplated accepting Jesus Christ right before he died of esophogeal cancer back in 2011.

Taunton told AL.com that Hitchens was moved to consider accepting God because of his own HIV-positive daughter Sasha, who exhibited deep faith.

"Sasha's impact on him was huge," Taunton said. "It's because of her own innocence. He was powerfully moved by her, an argument he couldn't refute... At the end of the day, the most powerful apologetic is love."

People assume that Hitchens hated people of religious belief, but Taunton alleges their thoughts about him are wrong. He says the only people Hitchens hated were phonies - or those who claim to be Christians but then secretly admit that they don't believe in God.

Despite his faith in God, Hitchens would apparently defend Taunton in front of a "snarling crowd." Whenever he talked about his faith in front of Hitchens, Taunton was not dismissed as one might expect. When he asked Hitchens why, the atheist replied, "Because you believe it. You really do believe what you're saying. You really are in pursuit of my soul out of compassion."

Taunton added that Hitchens respected his faith and appreciated it, and he came to the conclusion that Hitchens actually "valued friendship above ideology."

"I discovered Christopher is not defined by his atheism," Taunton said. "Atheism is a negative and you can't build a philosophy around a negative. Christopher was searching for a unifying system of thought. They're accusing me of saying he converted. I make no such claim. It's not my claim that Christopher converted, it's that Christopher was contemplating conversion. I think I substantiate it in the book."