Is Religion Good for the World?
A debate between Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe.
Moderated by Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week.

On October 29th, 2008, more than 1,500 people gathered in Temple Emanu-El at 7:30 PM to see Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe debate on the morality of religion. This debate is, in my opinion, one of Hitchens best to date. He really shows his knowledge of the subject and ability to pinpoint the problems with Wolpe's reasoning. In some of his other debates he seemed to simply regurgitate previous points he'd made and make more general statements on the topic of religion rather than focusing on the aspects being debated. Not so when he went up against Rabbi Wolpe. For me, Hitchens was able to get his point across and make sense of all the confusion and terrible metaphors Rabbi Wolpe had to offer (the Rabbi compared a "loving" God knowing our thoughts to that of a mother caring for a crying infant. The infant is not afraid that his mother knows his thoughts but rather this shows "intimacy and love". I'll let you form your own opinions of this argument.)
New York Times article link
Audio download of the debate available:
http://www.vocabsushi.com/JewishWeek.Hitchens.Wolpe.mp3