"Four Horsemen"

Students through the years have often told me that, so far as they knew, they'd never met or spoken with a real live atheist. They half-expected that such an encounter would be signaled by horns and cloven hooves and the acrid scent of sulfur.

So, whether you like these guys or not, please take note: no horns, no hooves (though some of the footwear looks questionable)... can't prove the absence of sulfur, that'll require some faith. Hitchens is a bit slouchy, sure, but whisky and smokes aren't exclusively devil's fare.

Here are Christopher Hitchens (God is not Great), Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), and Sam Harris (The End of Faith).

And here's a fifth horsewoman, the sweet and charming Julia Sweeney, SNL vet & lapsed-Catholic convert to the cavalry: