If you haven't heard this debate, I encourage you to listen. Both sides are very cordial, but the exchange is quite lively. Christopher Hitchens is author of God is Not Great. Mark D. Roberts' most recent book is Can We Trust the Gospels? -- which, I might add, is an excellent book. This debate took place on the Hugh Hewitt show and full transcripts are available.
The audio is compiled into one MP3 here.
2 comments :
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I found this rather disappointing in some ways, there was far too much arguing about scientific issues which neither of the guests claimed to understand. Mr Hewitt was loud in his insistence that he understood these issues - that is the anthropic principle - but clearly doesn't.
The other disappointment was Dr Roberts extreme reasonableness. It is much more entertaining to listen to Hitchens skewering unpleasant little toads like Dinesh D'Souza. Roberts is obviously a genuinely lovely man who struggles desperately with the endless problems involved in believing in Christianity all the while clinging desperately to his faith. It was rather poignant actually. I was sorry to listen to such an intelligent person wriggle on the hook of reality so painfully.
Hewitt also makes no bones about which side he is on and has a tendency to speak over Hitchens and do Roberts' work for him in a way that it is not clear Roberts agreed with.
It really highlights the difficulty of debating about religion, as no two theists believe the same things. Instead of arguing the point they just say that they don't believe that bit!
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