everyone loves a debate

You all know who Christopher Hitchens is. He is a complete arse. He is an atheist. he is an anti-theist. He Is also, most importantly a journalist/author/critic. He is probably the most important intellectual on the placnet currently and if not, he's definitely in the top ten.

Last night he spoke at VCU and debated some guy named Turec, Turek? Turreck? I don't know, nor does it matter. The debate was whether or not there is a God. Obviously Hitchens was against and the other guy (who I will now simply refer to as T) was for.

I myself believe in God, I also reject organized religion. So, I agreed and disagree with them both. Now, we all know that Hitchens likes to go on and on about how horrible religious people are and all that, and he did last night, it has become apparent (as he's gotten older) that he does have morals. Which raises the question, and was proposed by T last night how can one have morals if one does not believe in a God, or at least a higher being?

I don't know, I believe in God. But I don't think that one must have religion to know right from wrong,but I do think that we all as humans are born with that knowledge, from a higher being. It's all interconnected, and I am entirely to inarticulate to explain it, so I won't.

Anyway, I have great admiration for Hitchens and his peers in the journalistic world. If I am half as successful as he is I'll be happy. I luckily got to speak with him last night.

We've met a couple times before because he lives next to a friend of mine and while he didn't remember my name he did recognize me (gush!). I was able to speak with him after - it's common knowledge that he is a heavy drinker, it's also typical that alcohol is forbidden on all college campuses - I noticed/smelled his drink and asked what it was (i thought they were doing product placment with the pepsi cups, because it was recorded, vcu doesn't have money blahblahblah...) when he replied, ever so casually, "scotch! do you want some?" I declined and sat behind him as he spoke with hundreds of fans before leaving. My favorites were the Christians who stood in line to tell him how much they loved him and how they're praying for him and how they hope that one day he'll "find God." Oh dear! they were so cute! Anyway, I asked him if he wanted to go to Penny's, but he couldn't because he had to go out with the crazies that invited him to speak, and it just so happened that that is where they took him. Though, I didn't go, I did get a raincheck.

Prior to the debate I met a man whose name I won't post, but he works for a large PR firm in Reston and chatted with me for awhile. Anyway, I got his information and if an internship at the Post doesn't work out this summer I may have this to fall back on. Maybe I should go into PR, this networking thing is just too easy.