What if I pulled through and the pious faction contentedly claimed that their prayers had been answered? That would somehow be irritating.

Even if I accepted that Jesus - like almost every other prophet on record - was born of a virgin, I cannot think that this proves the divinity of his father or the truth of his teachings. The same would be true if I accepted that he had been resurrected.

When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that 'he may tarry,' we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen.

If I'm in a political argument, I think I can, with reasonable accuracy and without boasting, put the other person's side of the case at least as well as they could. One has to be able to say that in any well-conducted argument.

Religion is not the belief there is a god. Religion is the belief god tells you what to do.

Friends call me Hitch. Maybe it can be turned into a 900-phone number. People would pay to talk to me.

I have nowhere claimed nor even implied that unbelief is a guarantee of good conduct or even an indicator of it.