re: The NYT article on Sharpton/Hitchens....It's interesting to see a avowed believer...like Sharpton... holding his own against a literate atheist. Sharpton carefully points out the weaknesses in Hitchens' attacks on religion.....but then proceeds to make some of the usual mistakes in defending belief in God...(i.e..."When you raise the issue of morality, if there is no supervisory being, what do we base morality on?"..)

Hitchens spends far too much time dwelling on the 'bad things done in the name of religion'...that is not really a refutation of anything.