I recently listened to portions of a radio debate hosted on the Hugh Hewitt radio program between Christopher Hitchens, author of the recently published book “god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” and Mark Roberts, author of the soon to be released published book “Can We Trust the Gospels?.” Roberts is in the middle of a series of blogs discussing the debate and reviewing Hitchens’ book that you can find via the link on his name above.
In a New York Magazine interview Hitchens says he has an opinion about everything, but he is best known of late for his support of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite his basically liberal views. In addition, he is a self-proclaimed atheist or antitheist. A book like his, because of his reputation as a well-known commentator, will certainly be widely read and will carry with it the weight of his personal credibility. Firmly rooted in his views on religion, he is a forceful, confident spokesman for the atheist worldview. It is for this reason that we are calling attention this book: as thinking Christians we must be familiar with the views of those like Hitchens and be ready to give an answer.
While I have not read Hitchens’ book yet, nor have I listened to the whole Hitchens-Roberts debate, the links below will get you started looking into this for yourself. This would be in the category of reading things you don’t agree with as a way of preparing to be a defender of the faith and in challenging your own thinking about these issues.
For those who are podcast savvy, you can find the audio of the debate here. There is a free registration process to go through at this site.
See the links in the first paragraph for both authors’ books and other information. One of Roberts’ blog entries has a list of resources that were mentioned in the debate.