Another excellent debate. If you can't watch the whole thing I suggest watching Sam's opening salvo which is priceless, and his ending. He was in top form.
Like the Reza Aslan debate, the moderator ganged up on him. Hedges has a few good things to say, but sort of like the Andrew Sullivan debate, Hedges isn't always arguing with Harris' opinions. Harris brings objective stats such as poll data of Islamic opinion about suicide bombing which shuts him down.
After these Harris debates I like reading the message boards because they always tell the tale. People agree with Harris in about a ten to one ratio so far from what I've read. He has obliterated his entire field of opponents. And so has Hitchens, each in their own way. The facts are on their side so heavily that they don't have to perspire.
Of special interest in the beginning is where Sam brings up Sai Baba and explains that he has over a million followers, many of whom are western educated college grads. They believe fervently that he is a miracle worker. Despite this, he can't even raise enough interest in our society to get an hour special on the discovery channel. But you take a guy from thousands of years ago in a prescientific society with no contemperaneous accounts and conflicting records of his life and somehow people find this compelling.
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