In this corner ...

... Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God.

Here's a link to the actual debate: Hitchens vs. Wolpe.

I just got a copy of Rabbi Wolpe's Why Faith Matters. I started reading it this afternoon and it's so good I'm probably going spend the rest of the night reading it. Here's a nice passage:

The more I understood about faith, the more it seemed to me built on searching as well as finding. The Hebrew Bible is full of warnings against idolatry but has none against atheism. False belief is dangerous, but the art of questioning is important if questions are honest, persistent, and deep. Faith does not ask, "What medicine will cure this disease?" but "How can I use the experience of illness to help others?" It does not map the orbits of planets but does ask over and over again about the inexplicable twists of the human heart.

The prelude that opens the book demonstrates that Rabbi Wolpe knows what he's talking about when it comes to using the experience of illness to help others.