A number of months ago, I heard Christopher Hitchens debate the Oxford University mathematician John Lennox on the Christian faith at Samford University. Christopher Hitchens' 2007 book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, has made him arguably the nation's most notorious atheist. While his reasoning and arguments in that debate were in my opinion weak, he still proved to be a formidable provocateur, often receiving applause for his quick wit and charm at the podium. Already renowned as a political columnist for Vanity Fair, Slate, and other magazines, and known for his frequent contributions on the political TV circuit, Hitchens' barbed attacks against all religion has earned him regular debates across the country, often with the very fundamentalist believers his book attacks.

As a precursor to his January 5 appearance at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland Monthly invited Hitchens to a conversation…