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  • I can agree with nearly everything Hitchens says as a fellow Atheist, except for his pro-Iraq war ideas and his positions on circumcision.

  • "I'm not looking for concensus baby". - :)

  • Was this filmed on a boat... McGrath swaying from side to side... is making me sea sick.

  • Having two doctorates doesn't mean that you have a license to babble. Get to it already!

  • wow that guy really believes in human nature

  • at 1:16:00 Revelation opens in the discussion. That Book fore tells the catastrophic violence, bloodlust and war crimes called world war one and two. In 1935 Europeans attacked Ethiopia, again, but the Fascist Italians opened the seven seals, and the king of Ethiopia was returned to His throne, after Mussolini lost offensive capacity over 5 years of combat.

  • Comment removed

  • THE CURE? Haile Sellassie I - born Lij Tafari Makonnen crowned HIM Haile Sellassie I - pure indica is provisioned by God on the first pages of Genesis; all herbs for humankind. Hemp for the planet - all healthy and productive.Third world hemp. Reinvigorate global economy with hemp based industry. McGrath deserves a better laugh with his Nun joke. Listen twice still funny. Gut ripping. Rasta is a diffuse Christian sect. Peace

  • Approaching 37:00 strict justification for legalization for Rastafarians and all other humankind.

  • Approaching 33 minutes the biosocial imperative is explained. Humans are naturally inclined to help each other. And find ways of codifying that: Religion. In many disguises.

  • Praise Jah Ras Tafari Haile Sellassie I

  • I'm getting dizzy watching McGrath

  • miss you, mr hitchens... :(

  • The Church of England guy is just not up to it. Very bland platitudes from him and it like a tune up fight for Hitch.

  • @economist737 Church of England still hasn't acknowledged or apologized for their part in allowing for the invasion of Coptic Ethiopia in 1935 by the then British Ally, Fascist Italy. This crime perpetrated through the League of Nations and Suez Canal, facilitated the use of chemical weapons against civilians and the bare foot shaman clad Ethiopian Patriot Army. Not a word from the Archbishop, whose forerunners actually refused Edward VIII his crown because he was unsuitable being fascist......

  • STAND STILL!!

  • this atheists degrade the value of human life.

  • i love Christianity it gave me a more positive view on life.end of conversation.

  • @proximaism That's interesting. Atheism did the same for me. Guess that's no evidence one way or the other, and isn't the end of conversation.

  • @proximaism Guess some people just don't care about the truth...

  • FUCK god!!!!!!!!!!!

  • @DisturbedZelda "When God fucks you in the butt, Fuck God right back in his cunt!" (line from "The Book of Mormon" a musical by Matt Stone and Trey Parker.)

  • @CocktailGaming i heard that shit is hilarious, is it?

  • @DisturbedZelda It is a master piece. It's also extremely funny.

  • An immoral action done by the Atheist that cannot be done by a theist: Disbelief in God.

  • @TheDutchPhilosopher since when is disbelief in god immoral?

  • @Tall0n3 who says I've got to hold to what Hitchens thinks is moral... obviously then there is no immoral thing.

  • @TheDutchPhilosopher If you put forward the claim that disbelief in god is immoral, explain it. I don't see any immoralitiy in it.

  • @TheDutchPhilosopher thats an incredibly immoral thing to say

  • Ànswer to the challenge: Love God with all your heart soul mind and strength. is a moral but cannot be done by an atheist

  • @TheDutchPhilosopher which god ? theres 3000

  • @TheDutchPhilosopher Are you kidding me? How can disliking a fictional character possibly be an immoral act? Thats ridiculous.

  • @MrBobbybab if God exists... then he ought to be worshiped, if people dont worship him such as atheists... then that would be an immoral act that can be done by an atheist.

  • Hitchens for the win.

  • i love mcgrath's accent!

  • "If I can't be erect, at least I can be upright". :)

  • Alister makes good points, but the way in which he tries to emphasize certain words and using that handspeak just is distracting. In his defense, many folks these days do this. It's as if they take a class on public speaking/persuasion whereby Christopher speaks from his heart and let's face it, has a natural flair.

  • Fuck man. I´ve been completely hooked on Hitchens debates lately. I can honestly say i miss the guy and his extreme simplicity in explaining the absurdity of religion, and the occasional hitchslap :)

    Well, reading comments along the way on my Hitchens marathon, i can sense an ever growing atheism movement brewing. Seems like people are getting the idea... Guess watching these debates gives me some hope enlightenment in the future.

  • only me who thinks alister is wasteing our time being polite, when he should rather spend his time getting to his points?

  • @Mrmcroller

    yeah i'm not sure what it is, his droning puts me to sleep.

  • im not sure i heard anything intelligible from alister mcgrath

  • This is the first time I have heard Hitchens debate, and I am stunned by the gloriously eloquent nature of his arguments. I am saddened more, now, by his death than I was when I first heard the news.

  • McGrath is one of the better theist speakers i have come across and i am a die hard Hitchens fan. In fact i think Alister made some rather interesting points...but alas got Hitchslapped.

  • I agreed with points that both of them made and disagree with some things said but I don't think, in my humble opinion, either one of them had much luck in convincing the other side of their argument. Part of the biggest argument of the debate is based on belief systems. We could debate the historical evidence, but I'm not. If you were one way before then you were that way after... That's my opinion though...

  • Did they ever wind up doing a follow-up debate to this?

  • 'Our faith-based forces are about as useful as the Pope's balls'

    Priceless.

  • Allister, you are reading from a script that has been outdated.

  • 1:14:26 Here Hitchens delivers a series of death blows from which McGrath cannot recover

  • McGrath had many good points in his opening statement that any world view can lead to extreme actions, but he never once said (and I'm not surprised) that religion allows others to lose interest in and become ignorant to science. The restraints that religion puts on the scientific community is one of most disgusting things about it. You can have your theistic world views, but don't get in the way of human advancement.

  • Thanks for many hours of your wisdom Hitch.

  • Whoa McGrath moves his hands way too much.

  • McGrath carries the point of the possibility of (a) religion not necessarily being fundamentally wicked, but alas the texts & figures of his own faith simply rule it out from being one of these. He made a very good comparison of any world-view being able to be hijacked - even into selfcontradiction, but again, his particular religion is not one of these, all the justification for evil is there ready & waiting in the text

    Anyway the whole debate on impact is irrelevant to the truth of the claims.

  • McGrath certainly is good at using pronouns and runon sentences until it's impossible to follow his argument anymore. Hitchens also is good at telling bad jokes.

  • Dare I say:

    This is how atheists do their "fighting" in a civilised debate , Religion(s) use (and still do) to do their "fighting" with .... well ........ actual fighting.

  • "Lacks evidential basis?" Science... is new compared to religion. "Stopped being atheist" If you can live without god, then there's no reason to believe in one. "Pathological/normal religious belief"... Making up answers in pursuit to end questioning... "100,000 cases of being nice in religion" Seriously? You can be nice without religion. "Is it god doing this?" But in the name god anything is possible... with a weapon. No religion would propel science. In the place of every church... anything.

  • How did this dialog even pursue? Alister consistently moves to apologize for his views. Hitchen's simply cites history without a religious belief perspective.Without a doubt our specie's ego-centric view willl not be ridden of... but we can move forward without theism.

    Happy Holidays!

  • I am deeply saddened whenever I think that I couldn't see this person live ...:(

  • @SuperMemzzz

    He is a hoot. I was lucky enough to have been part of an old political chat room with him.

    I still can't believe he's gone, but not in spirit.

  • @SuperMemzzz I feel your pain more than you could ever know...Christopher Hitchens you are gone but your words and message will live on forever in hopes that one day we will see it come true

  • @SuperMemzzz  you can. McGrath lives in the UK. ( :P )

  • @Hanensens lol...

  • damn, poor guy got owned.

  • alister makes a good case that religion is not inherently evil. not some much a good case that religion is good

  • wow. Allister said nothing that helped to convince me of his faith. he basically just told people that they need to read the Bible in a certain way so as to gain the feeling for it that he does.

    Hitchens was flawless.

  • Unless one can know what they're going to think before the thought crosses their mind, then omniscience is impossible.

  • A morality is a set rules that, when followed by all of the members of a community, ensures that they peaceably coexist. How then can one who has no peers be the ultimate authority on morality?

  • God has told me to kill you all!

  • 1:13:59 Hitchpalm.

  • what is it with posh english accents and yanks hahah,get the fuck over it

  • he looks so healthy..dam cancer

  • Oh I just heard sad message about Hitch RIP

  • As much as I like watching these debates, I don't really understand why they happen. There's no evidence to begin with. What the hell is there to argue about?

    Person A: X is real.

    Person B: Can you demonstrate that?

    Person A: No.

    End of conversation.

  • @Skindoggiedog How can you deny scientific evidence?

  • @TREYJEEZY the problem here is not denying evidence, but not having the capacity to understand the difference between evidence and baloney sandwich.

  • @gr4ndhustle I'd say the monumental discoveries science is responsible for over the last 500 years have done much more to answer much more about the world, about where and what we come from, and provide much more for the world, than any religion I can name.

  • @TREYJEEZY i couldn't agree more.

  • @TREYJEEZY by looking at the facts..

  • @Skindoggiedog Except, that wasn't the topic debated at all.

    If you listen carefully, "Poison or cure, religious belief in the modern world."

  • @Skindoggiedog one reason to argue: its bieng forced upon people. we have to "respect" them in political and cultural situations. evidence has nothing to do with faith, but hitchens had a smart way of showing the stupidity of religion.

  • @Skindoggiedog this debate is strictly to look at if religion is good for our society or not.

  • @Skindoggiedog someone had to be there to make them look silly, may as well have been hitch

  • @Skindoggiedog end of conversation perhaps, but not necessarily end of the possibility

  • @KatanaRapierCombo2 That is true, but...so what? It is just as possible that unicorns live on the planet Zod and command us to stick carrots up our arse every saturday. Should i do that? No. Basing your actions on the possibility of something is silly.

  • @TheEmperorGulcasa fair enough, i guess, but you forgot about Galileo, remember what he went through? and after his passing, guess what people think now?

  • @Skindoggiedog the answer is no,but i believe it, then end of conversation.

  • @proximaism What other finctional characters from fairytales do you believe in that you cannot prove exist? Even if you do beleive in magic man and walk away it only shows your own itelligence.

  • @Skindoggiedog The point is to educate the audience and viewers into each viewpoint of discussion. When it comes to having any conversation in any situation, ever, these are the only ones worth having. It's important to reach as many people as possible about these topics because you never know if the next Thomas Paine or John Locke might see it, get inspired, and then change the world.

  • Fuck Hitchens McGrath is awesome

  • I watched this tonight out of appreciation for the life of Christopher Hitchens.

    This debate seemed to me MUCH better than the one between Harris and Craig. It was actually a pleasure to listen to Dr. McGrath representing his views. I feel he dodged some crucial points, but he did as well as anyone could expect against a fiercely uncompromising, honest, and gifted intellectual juggernaut like Hitchens.

    I will miss Chris. He has been one of my heroes -- a marvelous spokesman for secularism.

  • Watch my heart-felt and sincere tribute to the man, the writer, the father and piano virtuoso: "Christopher Hitchens and His Last Thoughts." Incidentally, I suspect that the music was composed and performed by him, oh yeah!!!

  • @TheWorldFarOff It didn't take YouTube long to remove your video. Tell us why.

  • you don't need heaven and god to live forever. through the influence Christopher Hitchens had on an entire generation he will live on. thanks for helping break the spell, job well done

  • The simple - at least for me - reason for dismissing religion, faith and the supernatural, is that there is no way we could possibly KNOW them while alive (whether they are true or not is irrelevant), other than in personal revelations and dreams. Not enough, I'd say, to spend my life with those as my main concerns, goals or ideals. They may enter my dreams, but so do unicorns and elves ;-)

  • Why does McGrath move around and sliver around like that? WTF is wrong with that guy.

  • Hitchens is quite dangerous, that we should destroy all our enemies. If that isn't a formula for planetary destruction I don't know what is.

  • Hitchens' view that people wouldn't contemplate horrible things like mutilation, stoning, rape, etc without religion is paradoxical, since he supports the State terror of the United States, invasion, destruction, and torture.

  • @indoctus41

    A good idea, but he does explain particularly in other debates that there are exceptions, that some people still enjoy being immoral. I think the idea of destroying our enemies more reflects the destruction of their immoral beliefs, I would suggest it is a realist's view.

  • It funny, Dr. McGrath, the most liberating moment in my life was when I realized the Bible and other scriptures is complete bullshit. lmao

  • Atheism IS water compared to christianity. The problem is, it is water compared to any other religion or belief that reaches into the unknown of what happens after death. Fiction is usually more entertaining and vivid than non-fiction, that's the main function of fiction, Dr. McGrath. But, atheism is also unbelievably liberating and eye-opening. It puts you back in control of your life, and breaks the chains of ignorant, wishfully-thinking, fiction writers from the bronze age.

  • mcgrath is so annoying. fuck.

  • The camera man has a tough job in following McGrath around, doesn't he? lol

  • hitch sure does have a peculiar taste in socks

  • despite talking for a tremendous amount of time, Mcgrath manages to do so without actually seemingly saying anything...

  • I pressed at random point and hit upon a "gruesome elderly virgins" LOL

  • If you asked a believer to list the reasons why they wouldn't want to live in North Korea, an atheist could use the same reasons, if it were true, as to why they wouldn't want to go to heaven. No freedom of thought, no right to protest without fear of execution, compulsory praise and worship of someone who would have no problem in destroying you if he so chose to. The list goes on.

  • interesting how mcgrath doesn't address hitchen's points, but rather expresses his personal feelings which are just that, his feelings, not sound logical arguements.

  • Kill religion!!!!! sry. that was for a respond on a dawkins video.

  • Kill religion!!!!!

  • I think the reason some people have a desire to do wrong things is because they haven't done them yet- the prodigal was ready to come back by the time he woke up next to a pig.

  • We're not wishing for death, but let's face it- everyone dies.

  • Once you get past Alister's accent, he really brings nothing to the table.

    Kinda embarassing how badly he gets Hitchslapped.

  • @dreihaddar I'm surprised that debaters of "faith" continued to enter these debates. It's a bit embarrassing to watch and listen to at times.

  • lol

  • Despite being utterly unconvinced by McGrath, and being able to replace christianity with any other religion in his arguments... I was surprisingly able to listen to all of his parts of the debate without my brain hurting as with most other theist debaters ex Craig, D'Souza, Wolpe, etc.

  • @skurys sad Hitchens never floored Craig like he does in this discussion to McGrath...

  • @skurys Hitchens wasn't attacking christianity per se, but religion as a whole. May explain Alister's percieved focus on religious aspects of faith as a whole, rather than christianity

  • @skurys

    It's interesting that you would be able to replace Christianity with any other religion, given that McGrath provided evidence in reference to Christ and the Bible. That doesn't leave much room for other religions.

  • @AidanMorrell "McGrath provided evidence"

    Yeah. I liked the part where he had jesus come out from backstage with god doing the voice-over.

  • @AidanMorrell Sorry I missed the evidence part. Morals prove nothing, as Christians can do bad things like the rest of humanity. And quoting the bible is as much evidence for Christianity as the Qur'an is for Islam. Even scientists can give all the logical arguments in the world but without physical proof it's just conjecture. Besides, that's not why people believe this stuff, its cuz they grew up in it. Thats why ppl still think going without a hat in winter will give you a cold.

  • @skurys all I heard from you was "MOOOOOOOOOO"

  • @skurys he is definitely better but still not answering a lot of the questions!

  • @skurys I don't think his point is to convince you of the truth of Christianity. His point is that it is a viable alternative if you're predisposed to believing in the first place.

  • @skurys I really think Hitchens takes it easy on D'Souza. I'll be listening to the two of them debate, and D'Souza says the most ridiculous things, and Hitchens rarely ever attacks him on them. I think he feels bad for D'Souza.

  • @Kuhnfuze if they took the time to attack all the craziness they said, the wouldnt have time for their own points! :)

  • @skurys man i cant stand dsouza

  • I like this kind of debate: two intelligent people discussing an important matter in a polite, respectful, yet still enticing way.

  • Alister McGrath has outclassed Christofer Hitchen's, in scholarship, class and standard of debate.

    God bless Alister McGrath.

  • @Zwemer100 i see. you didn't even watch it. or perhaps you were drunk when watching it and drunk when you posted. you got your facts backwards, sir. you may have an opinion, but you may not create your own facts. Hitchens offered up evidence the atrocity of the xtian faith and as to how its doctrines have fundamental flaws that negate them as having been given to us from something that is neither loving or divine.

  • I note that the contrary, equal and opposite perspective is non-accepting with the the Zealot Zitegeist. The disparagement before one embarks upon stimulative , rational thought typically is discarded, philosophically considered.

  • Hitchens destroys Him. (pun intended) ;)

  • Have to say I really enjoyed this debate!

  • Love Alister McGrath! Amazing guy :)

  • @lukehase

    :)

  • McGrath is useless...jibberish. The whole concept being debated is absurd.

  • instead the point of view in reference to god is divided by it self (religions). seems like god doesn't mind either, if your god is out there he's enjoying all this contraversy, seems like his believers are being out numbered by the new era of humans. this is great i wish i could be around 1000 yrs from now when this religious mess is just behind us all. congratulations atheist theres more people that like this video than people who dislike it. were winning. our vision is fullfilling.

  • gods & and religion should not be complicated. if god existed & the bible was authenticby him. it would make perfect sence everytime u opened it and read it & we would all believe in on god and own one bible.

  • Available -only- in fine stores everywhere.

  • Alister McGrath and Christopher Hitchens are both very inspirational!

  • Can one of you atheists watching this putting your pat on the back comments here please demonstrate to me how any of you can live out moral relativism? By very definition you must be a moral relativist. You must believe society dictates morals then because there is no higher power. My question is this: - is cold blooded murder wrong? (and any answer that points to the evolutionary model of the negative aspects of death to a society is not good enough) is murder wrong, why?r ther moral absolutes?

  • @ngimangi Nice work, the old 'you need religion for morals bullshit'. You're beliefs are nonsense and as such i laugh at the fact you are wasting your one and only time in the universe with such a delusion.

  • @IThinkImAloneNow please demonstrate why and i didnt say u need religion for morals. U need GOD for morals...

  • @ngimangi And no sorry you dont need god for morals. gods morals is horrible..we disagree with god in many ways.

  • @KeySour Do you think it is ABSOLUTELY wrong to Murder (cold blooded) if so why?

  • @ngimangi religion is the manual for god. You know how to behave because it's obvious. If you need god for morals then clearly you're a maniac. god believers are insane and as such should seek medical help as soon as possible. Again i say, imagine wasting your one and only shot in this universe with made up mumbo jumbo and imagine thinking people should respect you for it. You're a moron and i hold you in utter contempt.

  • @IThinkImAloneNow wow great way to be totally abusive. why not explain some of the things you've just said. Im interested to know how you clarify subjective statements such as "clearly your a maniac" etc... waiting patiently for another empiricist answer...

  • @IThinkImAloneNow elaborate and intelligently explain please. how can u tell me with your worldview that there are moral absolutes. do u think morality can be absolute|? if so why? peace

  • @ngimangi i can't converse with someone who says 'peace' at the end of a sentence.

  • Respond to this video... and i cant converse with persons who dont know what sarcasm is. look it up in the dictionary. a new word for you...

  • @ngimangi sarcasm? oh i see 'peace', i'm holding my sides with laughter, you should write for Private Eye. I feel your definition of sarcasm may be a little off.

  • Mcgrath just showed how narrow-minded atheists are, i pitty this atheists.

  • @proximaism Mcrath you pity the atheists? You mean your need to feel superior despite the fact Hitchens can destroy your pathetic beliefs has lead you to post a comment showing that you aren't capable of hearing and as such proves `Hitchens more than you can know.

  • @proximaism May I ask you how McGrath demonstrated Atheists are narrow-minded? Because we choose logic, reason, evidence and science? Because we are morally good on our own? Yes, on our own. This means WITHOUT an invisible sky daddy. Because we live our lives fully with love and compassion? Please enlighten me HOW Athiests are narrow-minded? Is it because our beliefs don't coincide with yours?

  • @shelleybelley682 tell youtube your secret sins :)

  • @proximaism Narrow minded? are you insane? Your belief is god is real and i dont care what anyone else says. that is narrow minded

  • @lewisner

    thats the problem you take religion and other beliefs as a joke we faithfull take it seriously, you are so disrespectful and you think that reason and evidence answers all, as alister mcgrath said, faith isn't against reason it simply goes beyond reason getting as pass the barriers that reason puts in our way to discovering the bigger picture of things.

  • @proximaism It goes "beyond reason" and MAKES STUFF UP. As for being "disrespectful", respect is earned not given. Your beliefs have not earned my respect.

  • @proximaism Yeah. After all, atheists are so narrow-minded, they can't see the invisible sky-daddy, who zapped Mary with a zygote-beam, that turned into Sky-Daddy Clone, who, being almighty, allowed himself to be nailed to a cross, came back from the beyond, and teleported into the sky some years later. And why did he do it? Oh, because all of man is doomed, because a gal named Eve decided to chomp on a piece of fruit. Yeah, so narrow-minded.

  • @HKOverlord117

    you atheists are delusional,you worship scientific theories.

  • @proximaism Irony seems to be the word here.

  • @proximaism Worship is defined as :The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object. Delusional is defined as a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact. Religious beliefs are delusional , science is not resistant to fact and it is not science worshiping a deity. One mistake after another from the deluded religious in a desperate attempt to justify their worship of an myth.

  • people like to think that science like astronomy and biology disprove God, but i think its possible to believe in god and believe in Hawking and/or Darwin, but those things did not make me an atheist. What made me an atheist is religious history, it disproves itself, the three judeo/christian/ islamic faiths disprove their elligibility by simply existing. Science came later for me.

  • If McGrath is as he says "wedded to evidence based thinking" why is he arguing from a standpoint "Christianity" for which there is no evidence whatsoever. Its obvious he isn,t wedded to evidence based thinking but faith in the wild stories of some Palestinian nutjobs of 1600 yrs ago !

  • @brogs60 See this is the problem- 1600 years ago? Palestinian? You are ALL WRONG!