I here my comment on the nyt blog:
Hitchens fails to unpack the implications of viewing the human being as an evolved creature. He doesn’t give sufficient credence to the evolutionary role of inherited ideas, such as religion, as an inherent part of our ability to reason.

Now I would not say that it is exclusively due to religion. He has a point in the parochial assumptions of religious doctrines. However, he needs to realize that evolution points to how the parasitic aspects of religion can be defused, without summarily dismissing what it has to offer.

Atheists need not be limited to the last 300 years of knowledge. Quite the contrary, the appeal of rationalism is precisely in being able to appropriate the wisdom from all lineages of human heritage.