{"id":285,"date":"2007-05-08T10:52:33","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T17:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=285"},"modified":"2007-12-09T08:06:52","modified_gmt":"2007-12-09T14:54:52","slug":"hitchens-sharpton-and-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=285","title":{"rendered":"Hitchens, Sharpton and Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com\/2007\/05\/07\/hitchens-sharpton-and-faith\/\">From The New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>You could tell from the background music that played beforehand &ndash; alternating recordings of James Brown and Gregorian chant &ndash; that this was going to be an unusual debate.<\/p>\n<p>The question under debate (&ldquo;Is God great?&rdquo;) and the speakers &mdash; two men who are often depicted in harsh caricatures by their critics &mdash; might have caused some to expect something like a circus. Perhaps surprisingly, it turned out to be the public intellectual event of the evening, a bit like Bertrand Russell vs. C. S. Lewis.<\/p>\n<p>Taking the atheist position was Christopher Hitchens, the journalist and author of a new book arguing that &ldquo;religion poisons everything.&rdquo; In defense of God was none other than the Rev. Al Sharpton, a man of the cloth who is perhaps even better known for his political and civil rights activism than for his training as a preacher.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><!--adsense--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The New York Times: You could tell from the background music that played beforehand &ndash; alternating recordings of James Brown and Gregorian chant &ndash; that this was going to be an unusual debate. The question under debate (&ldquo;Is God &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=285\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christopher-hitchens","category-religion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.10 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From The New York Times: You could tell from the background music that played beforehand \u2013 alternating recordings of James Brown and Gregorian chant \u2013 that this was going to be an unusual debate. The question under debate (\u201cIs God great?\u201d) and the speakers \u2014 two men who are often depicted in harsh caricatures by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Luke Ford\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"google-site-verification\" content=\"HMjuOfLRyzTPB-5Z5FG4BHkfZ1fbEij34rmbKM3BkZ4\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=285\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.10\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Luke Ford - No sacred cows.\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hitchens, Sharpton and Faith - Luke Ford\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From The New York Times: You could tell from the background music that played beforehand \u2013 alternating recordings of James Brown and Gregorian chant \u2013 that this was going to be an unusual debate. 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