this would be london, england - the place where they claim americans are too religious?

thousands turned out to see a religous debate?

try that in america - what size hall could you fill with the fight card showing christopher hitchens vs some regional archbishop?

americans traipsing around the world prosletyzing for secularism is every bit as jejune as proletyzing one's own sect.

why can't we just let people believe what they believe, and stop tyring to talk them out of it (provided their mullah or archbishop or 8 armed elephant doesn't tell them to blow up skyscrapers or burn unbelievers to death or start a crusade?)

really hitch - you're a smart guy. give it a rest.

or is this all some effort to fatten your wallet, though pushing a position nobody should care about?

"provided their mullah or archbishop or 8 armed elephant doesn't tell them to blow up skyscrapers or burn unbelievers to death or start a crusade?"

That his whole point isn't it? People do those things. And they are given legitimacy to an extent by the large numbers of other "believers" who may not act out themselves, but whose own "faith" supports the notion we live in a universe where reality is subject to the whims of invisible Gods, and Devils, and demons in conflict over our "souls" and all of that kind of hocus pocus that these unstable people feed off of.

Hitch can go away when an atheist can get elected President (or how about even hold a Cabinet position or higher State office) without kowtowing to religious groups. And, sorry, but his point about people who barely know what they believe in their own faith, but still support the mother church's coffers, those people who are all but agnostic in name but for societal and familial 'traditions' don't expose their real doubts about their own faith at the polls ARE wussy handholders of the more ridiculously insane fundamentalist brothers and sisters in faith.

Hey Balto - maybe you didn't get it. Religious dogma is providing air cover for injustice against human beings on a daily basis. Remember W? The 'crusader'? The bible is the only book you ever need to read? The catholic church promotes poverty as an acceptable - even necessary - condition daily, except for themselves, of course. Muslims kill other muslims on a every day for reasons of events that supposedly transpired 650 years ago. Blackwater is run by a religious nutjob that wants to kill every Muslim in sight. It's everyone against everyone else because of variances in ecumenical beliefs.

Hitch is stepping up to the plate the best he knows how - with his pen.

Atheists believe we are alone - and need to watch out for each other. There is nobody to go to for extraplanetary relief. It is the ultimate humanist perspective - that only common love is the social fabric that makes life bearable.

And you begrudge him the few hundred thousand he makes. Why? What's it to you?

stalin was an atheist.

mao was an atheist.

hitler was an atheist.

bitchens is in appropriate company.