mr. hitchens and myself which i will do my best to minimize. [laughter] please remember, ladies and gentlemen, that when it comes to the wickedness of religion feed the point it's no longer argumentative. i would remind you, however, of a remark dr. johnson made about original sin and i paraphrase him, he said it's not necessary for all the laws of heaven and earth are unable to prevent men from their crimes. now mr. hitchens is in the mind of watching someone painfully walking with to crutches moving arduously and singing to himself and to you i've got an idea. kick one of the crutches away. everything will be better. that seems to be a weak argument, not impossible argument. i would welcome the defense of the argument. but it is no able to my position that atheism plays since everything and that religion plays in something. there are plenty of plays and in the world. we don't lack an abundance. second point i would like to mention is the strange enchantment with the views of sir laurence cowles or steven hawking speed you know stephen hawking

mr. hitchens and myself which i'll do my best to minimize. [laughter] please remember, ladies and gentlemen, that when it comes to the wickedness of religion, i've seeded the point. it's no longer argumentative. i would remind you, however, of a remark dr. johnson made about original sin, and i par phrased him. the inquiry is not necessary for all the laws of heaven and earth are unable to prevent men from their crimes. now, mr. hitchens is very much in the position of someone watching a cripple walking painfully with two crutches moving painfully and saying to himself and you, i got a great idea, kick one of the crutches away, everything will be better. that to me seems a weak argument, a weak argument, not impossible, but i would welcome the defense of the argument, but it's no rebuttal to my position that atheism poisens everything and religion poisens something. there's plenty of poisens in the world. we don't lack an abundance. second i would like to address the strange enhasn'tment of -- enhancement of steven hawking. i don't know if an

mr. rushdie is well acquainted with. the persecution underwent. many of you know the details. and anyway, he is currently completed memoir about about that dark time. but christopher hitchens got it right i think when he began a chat of his memoir devoted to his long friendship with mr. rushdie, with the following quote from this category. a poet's work is to name the unnameable, to take sides, to start arguments, shake the world and stop it from going to sleep. as you will surely discover, mr. rushdie is incapable of putting anyone, reader or listener to say. please welcome salman rushdie. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> looks like there's more than 100 of you. [laughter] i should just say, since i was accused of having a harry potter-ish title, that "luka and the fire of life" was published before harry potter and the sorcerer's stone. [applause] actually, she did still one thing for me. i can point this, plagiarism of cheeky rally. the bad guys have reversed eyes. you know, they see in the dark and they can't cla. so instead of having lightbulbs they have dirt roads predicaments remsen switch on the dark is likely to switch on the light. and lo and behold and the