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GUESTS: Christopher Hitchens, author of God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and Chris Hedges, author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

We spend the morning hearing the full length debate between Christopher Hitchens and Chris Hedges on religion that was recently recorded in Berkeley and briefly featured on KPFK’s last funddrive.

Christopher Hitchens is a British-American author, journalist and literary critic. Currently living in Washington, D.C., he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The Nation, Slate and Free Inquiry. After being considered a leftist for many years, Hitchens came out in support of the US wars in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq. He admitted in 2004 that he was “on the same side as the neo-conservatives” when it came to contemporary foreign policy issues. He is also an avowed atheist and his latest book is called “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

Christopher Hedges is a journalist and author and a senior fellow at The Nation Institute. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries for publications like the New York Times. He is the son of a Presbyterian minister and has a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. Hedges’ latest book is entitled “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.”

The following debate between Hitchens and Hedges focuses on religion, and was entitled “Is God … Great?” It was recorded by KPFA, Pacifica in Berkeley on May 24, 2007. During the fund drive you only heard a short clip from this debate. Today for the first time on Uprising, we present the entire exchange between these two authors, starting with Christopher Hitchens.