Thom Hartmann Debates Christopher Hitchens On Religion.

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everythingor does it? Thom Hartmann spars with author/journalist/pundit Christopher Hitchens.

Thom can be heard daily on his radio show 12pm - 3pm ET visit www.thomhartmann.com to stream live or find a station near you.

Comments

[Copernic]

02:36 PM on 05/04/2009

Thom's a smart guy but he loses on this evangelism bit. If everything is evangelism, then the definition is so amorphous and his accusation against evangelical atheists means nothing. Hitchens also wrote a book on Thomas Paine. Is he an evangelical Paine'ist?

The 'good word" that Hitchens is trying to spread is that we don't have to believe your nonsense any more and there's nothing you can do about it. You can't stone us, you can't write your stoneage philosophy into our laws without there being a secular purpose agreed to by a plurality, you can't dictate what we can or cannot eat, how to mix our fibers in our shirts, when to work or demand the genital mutilation of our children.

This wouldn't be an issue if the religion were more like stamp collecting. Notice there is no new aphilatist movement.

[Chelvis]

07:38 PM on 04/10/2009

Hitchens wins as Hartmann tries to label him an 'evangelist' for atheism by expanding the term 'evangalist' or 'evangelism' so that it encompasses anybody writing, publishing or propounding what they believe is the truth. That's using 'evangelism' as an adjective, but Hartmann tries to equate (and thereby nullify) Hitchen's efforts with an actual religious evangelist - someone offering eternal salvation through Christ. An evangelist for Christ is wrong, thinks Hitchens, but presumably a evangelist for malarial nets in Africa to prevent the spread of disease has a good point, despite his efforts being described as 'evangelical'. A very tendentious and flimsy effort from Hartmann; Hitchens wins again.

[Dodgeyaussie]

06:17 PM on 04/10/2009

Hitchens argument completely loses credibility when he proves he has no idea of what it means to be evangelical, despite Thom correcting him.

[Bernique]

01:14 PM on 04/09/2009

I am not sure who won this very prickly "debate", but you both defended your "turf" honorably.