Christopher Hitchens v Dinesh D'Souza

Christopher Hitchens debates Dinesh D'Souza.

Christopher Eric Hitchens (born 13 April 1949) is an English-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008. He is a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits and in 2005 he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll.

Hitchens is known for his admiration of George Orwell, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson and for his excoriating critiques of, among others, Mother Teresa, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Henry Kissinger. His confrontational style of debate has made him both a lauded and controversial figure. As a political observer, polemicist and self-defined radical, he rose to prominence as a fixture of the left-wing publications in his native Britain and in the United States. His departure from the established political left began in 1989 after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the European left following Ayatollah Khomeini's issue of a fatwā calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie. The September 11, 2001 attacks strengthened his internationalist embrace of an interventionist foreign policy, and his vociferous criticism of what he called "fascism with an Islamic face." His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, while Hitchens insists he is not "a conservative of any kind."

Identified as a champion of the "new atheism" movement, Hitchens describes himself as an anti-theist and believer in the philosophical values of the Enlightenment. Hitchens says that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct," but that "An antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion." He argues that the concept of God or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom, and that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining human civilization. He wrote at length on atheism and the nature of religion in his 2007 book God Is Not Great.

Though Hitchens retained his British citizenship, he became a United States citizen on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, on 13 April 2007, his 58th birthday. His latest book, Hitch-22: A Memoir, was published in June 2010. Touring for the book was cut short later the same month so that he could begin treatment for newly diagnosed esophageal cancer.

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Dinesh D'Souza (born April 25, 1961) is an author and public speaker who once served as the Robert and Karen Rishwain Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is currently the President of The King's College in New York City. D'Souza is a noted defender of Christianity and conservative writer and speaker. He is the author of numerous New York Times best-selling books. He was born and raised Catholic, but now considers himself an Evangelical Christian

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[DGoose33]

Isn't it insane that all of Hitchen's debaters are part of an organized religion where they believe in the underlying texts yet none of them ever debate Hitchen's on those holy books? They all debate him as deists and disregard their own faiths beliefs. It seems they know their holy books have no reasonable defense so they drop the scripture act and argue the possibility of a creator in general.

[Leehamism]

This is the third time I have heard Dinesh speak. He is clearly intelligent and does well when debating from the losing end.

Some of his arguments would often be referred to as being simply wrong. Unfortunately, because he is no ignoramus I can only conclude he is being deliberately misleading and irresponsible.

[agreatflood2121]

@uscjd2004 Proof, No. Evidence, yes, and what qualifies for evidence in History is different from science, you can't test with observation.

The empty tomb. Not even Bart Erheman will deny the empty tomb. And the fact of the matter is that there is no adequate natural explanation why the tomb was empty.

"Give it up." You started this and you can end it, as long as you keep responding, I will

And the existence of Jesus is not up for debate. If you if believe men like Hitchens you believe a lie

[uscjd2004]

@agreatflood2121 There's no real evidence of a resurrection or the occurrence of any other miracle. Give it up.

There may well have been a deluded preacher roaming Galilee at that time. I don't care.

[agreatflood2121]

@uscjd2004 Glad you decided to wait up for me.

"The mundane details of certain people and places are irrelevant."

Your oversimplification of monotheism is fascinating, especially since it is false regarding Christianity. The details of Christ's Life, Teachings, Cruxifixction, and Resurrection are profoundly relevant.

And just as you speak of his agnosticism being telling, another especially telling feature is the way he contradicts an Atheist anxious to say that Jesus Christ did not exist.

[uscjd2004]

@agreatflood2121 The core propositions of monotheism are of a supernatural character. The mundane details of certain people and places are irrelevant. Ehrman's agnosticism is what's truly telling.

[agreatflood2121]

@uscjd2004 Bart Erhman is a skeptic of the biblical claims of divinity and yet he gives The New Testament its due credit. It does not get more impartial then that.

You would know that if you bothered to listen to the video I posted about him. Rather then doing that, you spat at me in outright rejection of the information, while simultaneously to give that type of argument.

Your self contradiction is telling, and not at all rational.

[uscjd2004]

@agreatflood2121 I will cease ridiculing your position as soon as theists cite impartially-produced evidence and cogent argument that supports the core propositions of the faith. I won't wait up.

[agreatflood2121]

@uscjd2004 I would appreciate it if you did not behave with mockery, sarcasm, and insult.

If you wish to call it nonsense and reject it out of hand, you must reject the facts put forward by modern historians.