Simultaneously with 3 Quarks Daily getting there, I came across this Guardian Hay on Wye festival interview with the two brothers (Ian Katz, Guardian Features Editor i/c):
CH … It's a great credit to our father, who was very conservative, that he never attempted to inculcate any politics into either of us, there were no heretical positions in the family. The real difference between Peter and myself is the belief in the supernatural. I'm a materialist and he attributes his presence here to a divine plan. I can't stand anyone who believes in God, who invokes the divinity or who is a person of faith. I mean, that to me is horrible repulsive thing.
IK Peter when did your belief kick in, when did this become an issue between you?
PH Oh, it's never been an issue. As an issue between us I think he overestimates it. He has several faiths. He has the faith I think of Darwinism, which is just like Christianity, an unprovable theory, which you can believe if you want because you prefer that arrangement of the universe. I happen to think the arrangement of the universe based on the belief in intelligent life is more tolerable than both morally and aesthetically, but he prefers another. I dislike only the attitude that his atheism is not a faith, because it is. I have absolutely no disgust or anger with anybody who disagrees with me about that. I'm much more worried about people who are indifferent. …
IK Are you two friends?
PH No. There was an old joke in East Germany that went, Are the Russians our friends or our brothers? And the answer is, they must be our brothers because you can choose your friends.
CH The great thing about family life is that it introduces you to people you'd otherwise never meet.
IK One last question from the audience.
Audience member You've been casting furtive glances at each other throughout the whole event but you've never yet made eye contact. Would you for this final moment, look each other in the eye?
CH You don't know what we've just been through. We were asked by James Naughtie to do an on-radio handshake, [and] I thought it was a handshake made for radio.
Audience member So will you do it?
[CH and PH look briefly at each other]
PH They want everything to be all right.
CH They want a happy ending - that's their problem.
