Interesting Debate in Newsweek

Newsweek organized a debate between Rick Warren, best selling Christian pastor, and Sam Harris, an up-and-coming apologist for Atheism. The excerpt-based article, titled “The God Debate,” starts this way:

The latest NEWSWEEK poll shows that 91 percent of American adults surveyed believe in God—and nearly half reject the theory of evolution. Also, Americans on John Edwards and the Senate's goal for troop withdrawal.

Rick Warren is as big as a bear, with a booming voice and easygoing charm. Sam Harris is compact, reserved and, despite the polemical tone of his books, friendly and mild. Warren, one of the best-known pastors in the world, started Saddleback in 1980; now 25,000 people attend the church each Sunday. Harris is softer-spoken; paragraphs pour out of him, complex and fact-filled—as befits a Ph.D. student in neuroscience. At NEWSWEEK's invitation, they met in Warren's office recently and chatted, mostly amiably, for four hours.
Read more>>

The conversation is long and illuminating. I was disappointed to find the article did not qualify for the Amy Writing Awards, although the article comes close on internet webpage 7 when Warren quoted Jesus when he said, “I am the only way to God. I am the way to the Father.” Close paraphrase, but not close enough.

Still, the dialogue, which gets testy at times, is interesting. Give it a read!