Known as the ‘four horsemen’ of New Atheism, these four big thinkers of
the twenty-first century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas
on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging. Everything that was
said as they agreed and disagreed with one another, interrogated ideas and
exchanged insights – about religion and atheism, science and sense –
speaks with urgency to our present age.
Questions they asked of each other included- ‘Is it ever possible to win a war
of ideas? Is spirituality the preserve of the religious? Are there any truths
you would rather not know? Would you want to see the end of faith?’
The dialogue was recorded, and is now transcribed and presented here with new
introductions from the surviving three horsemen.
With a sparkling introduction from Stephen Fry, it makes essential reading for
all their admirers and for anyone interested in exploring the tensions between
faith and reason.
Author Biography
Richard Dawkins (Author)
Richard Dawkins is author of The Selfish Gene, voted The Royal Society's Most
Inspiring Science Book of All Time, and also the bestsellers The Blind
Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, The Ancestor's Tale, The God Delusion,
and two volumes of autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder and Brief Candle in the
Dark. He is a Fellow of New College, Oxford and both the Royal Society and the
Royal Society of Literature. In 2013, Dawkins was voted the world's top thinker
in Prospect magazine's poll of 10,000 readers from over 100 countries.
Sam Harris (Author)
Sam Harris is the author of the bestselling books The End of Faith, Letter to a
Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will and Lying. The End of Faith won
the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. Dr. Harris is cofounder and CEO of Project
Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and
secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford
University and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.
Daniel C. Dennett (Author)
Daniel C. Dennett is the University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor
of Philosophy at Tufts University. He is the author of numerous books including
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, Breaking the Spell,
Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Consciousness Explained.
Christopher Hitchens (Author)
Christopher Hitchens was an English-born American author, journalist and
literary critic. He was a columnist at Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, World Affairs,
The Nation, Slate, Free Inquiry, and a variety of other media in a career that
spanned more than four decades and made him a prominent public intellectual, and
a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. His books include The Monarchy;
Blood, Class, and Nostalgia; No One Left to Lie Toand God Is Not Great. He died
in 2011.
