In many European countries, churches fill up only on Christmas day; Europeans are so thoroughly secularized that clerics regularly question the existence of God. In America, on the other hand, politicians habitually invoke the Almighty and religious inspiration continues to play an important role in public life. Which of these models serves Western civilization and which threatens it? Please join the New Atlantic Initiative for this debate between one of Europe's most prominent Catholic philosophers and a self-proclaimed athiest.

PROPOSING: Janne Haaland-Matlary, professor of international politics at the University of Oslo

and

OPPOSING: Christopher Hitchens, journalist