Over at EvolutionBlog, Jason Rosenhouse asks What is it With Hitchens? “Why is he so sensible and sharp when discussing religion, but almost perfectly brain-dead on every other issue?” Several commenters point out that Hitchens appears sharp only when you agree with him on the issues. The reason he is brilliant in debates with creationists isn’t because of the substance of his arguments, but because of his style. It is simply fortuitous that he happens to be right as well.

Now, it seems a lot of people view this as a bad thing. (One of the commenters at EvolutionBlog calls him a “poseur”, another points out that “it’s mostly just cheap rhetoric tricks and catch phrases that don’t penetrate the surface of the issue, repeated ad nauseum”. Although they also call his rhetoric “admirable”, I think their choice of words illustrates their ever so slight disdain of this kind of debating.) Us rational-minded people have this idealistic notion that it’s what people say that should matter, not how they say it. We want to think that anyone who knows a lot about evolution should be able to disembowel any creationist/Incompetent Design proponent they come across with simple facts. But, this is obviously not the case. I have personally come across at least one ID person who was simply too slick, too rhetorically polished for me to get a good grip around his metaphorical throat.

In short, it doesn’t matter if you’re right or not. When you enter a debate, especially one in front of an audience, what matters is your rhetorical clout. You need to have an arsenal of slogans and catch phrases, you need to be able to think on your feet, and you need to be able to put your opponent on tilt while avoiding the same thing happening to yourself. Hitchens can do this. Many others, including sometimes Dawkins, can’t. I think this might be one of the reasons why Dawkins advises against giving creationists the time of day: He knows that many of them are far more skilled debaters than most scientists, and that regardless of the fact that we’re right, we’ll come out of it looking bad.

And when it comes to winning over the minds of the public, it’s all about the looks.

Speaking of looking good, here’s a photo of me with some guy they pulled off the street to do the key-note address on the final day of the World Humanist Congress in Washington:

(Here’s the speech on youtube. One of the heads in the foreground is mine… and you can see the picture above get taken at the end of Part 2. I am … very embarrassed. I’m really not some total fangirl, I’m just very opportunistic. As it turned out, I could have waited with the picture: After the next part was over and we were standing in line at the hotel Starbucks, Hitchens came with a long queue of disciples fans eager to shake his hand and have their books signed trailing him (giving him a rather amusing mother goose-like appearance), and ended up just behind us in the line.)

debating, christopher hitchens, hitchens, dawkins, creationism