BookTV: Hitchens, Karabell, and Kirsch debate Religion (1)

Christopher Hitchens, Zachary Karabell and Jonathan Kirsch debate Religion and Culture.

The LA Times Festival of Books, 2007.

I couldn't find all of this on Youtube, so I am posting it.

• Category

  News & Politics

[lollygager3664]

Fellatio is how you "make friends in the book business."

[BARCACROSSESTHEALPS]

MAN>god

[Gowtham T]

The Fascist Crackpot Sent Me Here! :D

[vashna3799]

I have seen my lord and saviour and it is indeed the flying spaghetti monster .Repent !

[Jonathan Fletcher]

Thank you for posting this, rabidbear8.

[Jonathan Fletcher]

I wonder why that is. Perhaps it has something to do with the ease with which the Enlightenment permeated the ranks of the Scottish academy. After all, both David Hume and Adam Smith were both non-believers, or at the very most, Deists.

[Christopher Hitchens]

flying spaghetti monster > jesus

[OhMyGoddlessGamer]

6,000,000,000>0 or existence>non-existence maybe reality vs. concept would be another way of viewing I suppose.

[callishka]

This is one of the most frustrating debates I've ever seen. The degree to which Hitchens' opponents miss the point is matched only by the degree to which he makes his point starkly clear.

[pervertedmind]

Nice front cover for the bible.

[andrjsh]

Hitchens makes the valid point that one should use one's reason, but he lapses into unreasonableness when he asserts that since we are "half a chromosome away" from chimps, (biologically and genetically true) religion defaults to a simian exercise. Chimps use trees as their cathedrals, while men summon up Chartres, Haghia Sophia, and La Sagrada Familia. Chimps pound their chests but men make chant. (I also suspect that if Hitchen's did not have a British accent, he would have much less kick)

[baigandine]

I don't think we're an era of fanaticism. On the contrary, we are recognizing it's fanatical, contrasted with the relatively reasonable era we are in.