Umberto Eco tells a story about Pope John XXIII: One of Eco's friends said, "Pope John must be an atheist. Only a man who does not believe in God can love his fellowman so much!" I couldn't help but think of this story in connection with my being in public conversation with Christopher Hitchens a few years ago.
We met on the stage of the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco to discuss his new book "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." It was a roller coaster of a conversation. The audience was wired and conflicted: on the one hand looking forward to hearing Hitchens use religion as a punch bag, but one the other, appalled by his continued insistence that the war in Iraq was just and essential to defeat Islamic Fascism.
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