by Greg Mayer

English philosopher and humanist A.C. Grayling was interviewed last night on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central.  The interview highlighted Grayling’s new book, The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism, which Jerry has noted here at WEIT.

Grayling started with a nice definition of humanism that was appreciated by the audience. Colbert then tried Pascal’s wager on him, as Grayling had mentioned the multiplicity of gods, but it’s sometimes hard to produce a concise but thoughtful response in in these very short and comedic interviews.

The full interview is available here on Colbert’s website and via hulu.

Colbert is rebroadcast the next day (i.e. today, Thursday) at 6 PM Central time; check your local listing.

[JAC note: I just watched the short Hulu clip and was quite pleased. Grayling seemingly wasn’t attuned to Colbert’s schtick, but he answered very well, made as many good points as I think are possible in such a short time, and, most important, it looked as if the audience was on his side (note the applause when Grayling claims that religion does more harm than good).]