While promoting his new book, God is Not Great, Chris Hitchens is all over the place. The Daily Show, C-SPAN, New York magazine. The list goes on.
Here are two of the more interesting things he’s done the past couple weeks.
First, there’s the debate with Al Sharpton. The question they’re debating is: “Is God Great?” Which doesn’t make much sense to me for an atheist to answer because the question itself is a moot point. (It’s like when Stephen Colbert asks his liberal guests: “President Bush: Great president?… or Greatest president?”) Here’s one humorous excerpt from the debate:
Mr. Sharpton also aimed a barb at Mr. Hitchens, who has broken with left-wing commentators through his staunch defense of the war in Iraq and President Bush’s policies there.
“At the end what is refreshing is that you are a man of faith,” Mr. Sharpton told Mr. Hitchens, to much laughter, “because any man that at this point has faith that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has more faith than any religious person I know.”
Al Sharpton also made one comment (he made similar ones later) which gets back to the poor question at hand:
Mr. Sharpton was not persuaded. “A lot of what you’re saying is based on dogma that has nothing to do with one’s belief in a supreme being. You’re discussing, again, religions, dogmas, denominations, not the existence or nonexistence of God.”
Well, based on the question, this debate isn’t about the “existence or nonexistence of God”…
The NY Times article closes with the following:
Perhaps the funniest moment in the cordial and profound exchange occurred when Mr. Sharpton endorsed Mr. Hitchens’s book.
“I’d encourage people to buy the book,” Mr. Sharpton said. “I don’t believe what it says, but it’s well written. He’s a very eloquent and well-versed person.”
“That’s extremely handsome of you,” Mr. Hitchens replied.
The second interesting thing Hitchens is doing is an online debate with Theologian Douglas Wilson, reminiscent of Sam Harris’ online debate with Andrew Sullivan.
It’ll be fun to see where this one goes.
[tags]atheist, atheism, God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens, The Daily Show, C-SPAN, New York magazine, Al Sharpton, debate, Stephen Colbert, George Bush, Iraq, dogma, NY Times, Theologian, Douglas Wilson, Sam Harris, Andrew Sullivan[/tags]