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  • widdencombe is an idiot. she's the kind of woman who damages the social progress of women in general.

  • Damn that Widdecomb missed her calling. She could have been a highly paid Yodeller!!

  • Fry is brilliant.

  • 7:10 I didnt understand jack shit of what she said? First off, what the fuck is a point of consencraction? And why is it not okay for a woman to be a priest, but it is for a man? And she didn't say why it is perfectly okay for her to be a person of god or whatever? What she said is completely meaningless to me.

  • @silyanina God says all bitches must make sandwhiches in the kitchen

  • This video makes me wonder why I don't live in London...

  • Arg... I'm not a native english speaker, and most my english experience is (quite obvioulsy) american english, so I'm having a hard time trying to understand her terrible terrible voice, can anyone help me understand what she said from 07:20 to 07:33 ?

  • @KoyalAlkor "A member of parliament, male or female, does not stand in persona Christi at the point of consecration. But I don't believe that it is any more possible for a woman to represent Christ at the point of consecration than for a man to be the Virgin Mary."

    You can look up the phrase "In persona Christi" on Wikipedia if you don't understand

  • @macarion Thank your very much. =)

  • As much as i believe that the catholic church is not a force for good in the world. This whole thing felt like one big circle jerk. Did anyone honestly believe that Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens were going to lose this debate? Watching these guys owning religion over and over gets old after a while. I know what I believe in, and i dont need my beliefs constantly reinforced by these guys to make myself feel good about myself and my choice for said beliefs.

  • wtf... the woman at 7:44 looks like she just crawled out of a terrifying horror film...

  • Fry owned this debate. At 6:29 I think the man has a good point.

  • 666th comment... Fuck you Catholic church! :P

  • anne widdecomb's voice hurts my brain - and then when you actually hear what she's saying ithe pain trebbles.

  • People forget that the only way the church does good is in exchange for belief and membership in their cause.

    You might as well praise your grocery store for giving you food in exchange for money.

  • I am not fond of the idea of using violence against women, but listening to the voice of Ann Widdencombe.... you get the idea.

  • I love to see that old woman be PWNED

  • We all know that the catholic church are charitable (well they can be) but the fact that they feed millions of Africans is redundant due to the fact of them causing these millions of Africans to actually starve. Banning contraception is absolutely absurd, sex is not sinful it is what we are for as human beings and I will be damned if the church tell me that I cannot engage in sexual activity.

  • If I ever meet Stephan Fry, I would like to buy him a drink.

  • Love the round of laughs after that confused woman's 'ten commandments' question.

  • Haha that's so cool I heard that a well!

  • Anyone else hear the thunderous volley of a battleship's guns when Stephen Fry asked "then what are you FOR?!"

  • @TalentSpotter83 Nice, nice nautical salvo analogy

  • By claiming there is no roman catholic policy of which he is ashamed, the Archbishop did a bigger favour to irreligion and atheism than he ever could dream of.

  • The Catholic Church says we couldn't know any better because nobody else did.

    Stephen Fry: "Then what are you FOR?"

    Slam dunk.

  • What deference does it make if a woman is a priest or not. For women is the whole thing about being recognize and so that they don't look inferior...talk about catholics being ignorants! Look at Mother Teresa who was no priest but yet a very recognize and holy person. Priest or not...it's all about who you are and how you act.

  • haha "Then what are you for?!"

  • at 8:30 Ann Widdecombe is writing "man had good point. must torture later"

  • awkward when P widdy stops talking about the ten commandments... silence...

  • Best ending to a video ever. Stephen Fry yelling at the Catholics ' What are you for?!'

  • The only debate that I'm having is whether Hitchens or Fry spoke better.

  • french lady at 7:50 is adorable, like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

  • @Aberjan

    pretty sure she's spanish or portugese but not french ;)

  • Anne's response to why women should not be allowed to become priests has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. She danced around that like a proper politician though, fair play. Being a woman, I am ashamed that she is not only a female saying this and degrading women but she is a person who has been given enough authority and credibility to be allowed to spout the bullshit that comes out of her mouth. She also seemed to think the whole thing hilarious! The woman is backwards!

  • Anne Widdecome should make a sat nav voice, imagine all the accidents caused by over laughter.

  • It was not Catholecism that gave us the 10 commandments it was jeudaism

  • I came to this video as an admirer of Christopher Hitchens, following is untimely death, expecting to hear some great Hitch moments. There are some, but what a performance by Stephen Fry! Out Hitches Hitch! Well done sir.

  • The Virgin Mary....apparently a job role at a church.

  • On the question about the 10 commandments: Why isn't "thou shalt not fucking rape people" in there? But saying god's name in a crappy tone is?

  • Anne Widdecombe makes a ridiculous answer to the question as to why women can't be priests. Typical of her, she doesn't answer the question.

  • oh how i hoped that the sentence "this is simple question for ann widdecombe.." (around 4.50) would have continued "what the FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR FUCKING VOICE??"

  • The archbishop may be wrong, but he's defo not stupid. And he has my respects for being so blatantly honest even when it doesn't suit his goal (4:40 ish)

  • Stephen Fry fried them all!!

  • Fry should run for parliament

  • Was the woman at 8:00 on crystal meth or something?

  • @AylaPersephone I think she's just French.

  • Wait wait, people think the Ten Commandments was the first written moral code?

  • @OctillianODS

    Yes, despite the fact that even if the bible is true, the people with Moses knew killing each other was wrong.

    It's a very special book.

  • @OctillianODS Proof that it's not just Americans that are ignorant of say, the Code of Hammurabi (amongst other examples).

  • Ann Widdecombes is a royal cunt. What a bitch. She reminds me of this racist schoolteacher I had who made me and two other black students sit in the back and EVERY time something went missing from the room, be it a marker or a chalkboard eraser, she blamed me or one of the other two automatically. She was about a hundred years old. Ann Widdecombes acts just like her.

  • How about, thou shalt not fuck babies!!!

  • Alot of Catholics are really nice people... but that's made possible by the fact that most Catholics don't follow Catholicism very closely.

  • @Denethorable Agreed. My long-time best friend is Catholic and so is my fiancee. They both identify as catholic but not only do they not practice it, but they are both very much against the catholic church and the current pope. They just do the catholic thing because they grew up doing it and it's like a family tradition for them. Both are liberal, pro-choice, and pro-gay rights.

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  • look at exposing christianity site - the inquistion

    look at the breast ripper and heretic's fork - its beyond imagination what the native americans etc went through

    they are truly demonic

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  • nice lady.

  • "What is the point of the catholic church if it says 'we couldn't know better, because nobody else did'. THEN WHAT ARE YOU FOR?"

  • Can someone please write down Ann Widdecombes answers, then just mute her when she talks and have subtitles? This isn't for comedic purposes either, I just genuinely find her voice distracting.

  • The Archbishop's answer to the 1st question sounded like an argument against that of which he was arguing for.

  • who went there to sit on the fence?? lol

  • You've got to admire Stephen Fry. Such a good man.

  • The ten commandments you should just be doing them anyway!!!

    and the pope agreed SO WHAT ARE YOU HERE FORRR???

  • 3:00 the laugh is great

  • this sort of debate would have never been sponsored for american television. I wonder how come?

  • God, male

    Jesus, Male

    Joesph, Male

    Mathew, Mark, Luke and John... Males

    Most of the Men in my Saint book, Male

    The Pope, Male

    Mary, holly fuck its a Holy Woman!

    Women can't be the Pope because women Biblically are unimportant. If God could have in impregnated a man, he would have. But then the Gays would have rights.

  • George Carlin had something great to say about the 10 Commandments.

  • surely jesus was bourne of woman so why can't a woman represent Christ?

  • Stephen Fry is on fire! Hitchens too, but that's old news.

  • The Archbishop & the nun in the front row both had the grace to applaud Stephen as he sat down. For that I applaud them.

  • "The what are you FOR!?" 10-0

  • OMG how annoying is she

  • 2:53 This is something that many religious people, and conservative people say - that we are in a moral crisis at the moment. They often then cite the usual targets - wars, terrorism etc. etc. I still don't understand how they can forget that in the past we had all those things and MORE. We are more morally enlightened nowadays than we were in the past, that is a fact.

  • @CecilyHeron In North America, at least, crime rates are lower than they've ever been in 40 years. Hard to see the "moral crisis" in that.

    I don't think there's ever been a time when someone wasn't proclaiming a "moral crisis". It usually seems to mean, "People are doing things I don't like, but I can't come up with a solid reason why they should stop".

  • @michaelccozens Exactly! I think it comes from a very blinkered look at history and current events. And buying into sensationalist media storms. I once heard Widdecombe say, in defence of using the death penalty, that "paedophilia is rife" Nobody is ever going to know of every case of child-abuse in history, but my money's on it having been WAY more prevalent in the past. Need I even go into the fact that one of the few bastions of institutionalised child-abuse is the one she is championing here

  • @michaelccozens And very good point about crime. The fact that there is still crime, and a lot of it horrible, can't be viewed in isolation. A quote in the film Elizabeth the Golden Age (naff to quote a movie, sorry!!) sums it up I think: "You see a leaf fall, and you think you know which way the wind blows."

  • @michaelccozens The crime rate in USA, as in other countries where non-belief is increasing, is dropping at a rate that is hard not to compare it to the increase in secularism and atheism/agnosticism.

  • I hope they paid Hitchens appropriate reparations for having to debate Miss Widdicombe. .

  • the CC has maybe more than 80,000 antiques stolen from africa asia etc - in its Vatican - the biggest pimp house ever - close it down!!!

  • Widdecombe and the Bishop should have gone off for a shag afterwards - it might have cured them of their delusions...

  • Ann Widdecombe ought not to be allowed to speak. She should have to write her answers down and have them read by someone with a proper voice.

  • @PandaKnight

    When ever there was a male playing a woman in a Monty Python flick I thought they're making jokes.... Ann Widdecombe showed me that I was wrong on this subject!

  • @PandaKnight She shouldn't be allowed to have her views. They're nothing more than geriatric bollocks that went the way of colonialism.

  • It's funny that no one ever remembers that theres more than 300 commandments, including that thou shalt not wear cloths of two kinds, and you should not shave your beard... e.t.c

  • @ThorandTrevor It is funny how people cherry-pick. Almost as funny as realizing that the immutable word of God has been continuous formed and reformed by committee over the space of a few thousand years. How can it be the Divine Word when it had bits cut out of or added to it by different groups of functionaries at various points in history? It's like making a holy book of Wikipedia.

  • Jeeves exercises the old cerebellum

  • god, hitchens and fry. why would you agree to debate against them.

  • I noticed that Anne didn't mention "Thou shalt not lie". Good thing, it would have been far too ironic.

  • Matching any number of Christians against Hitchens and Fry is like matching a wet noodle against Chuck Norris.

  • Hitchins is a Rolls Royce. Widdencombe is clapped out Ford

  • How are Catholic policies reasonable, if they supposedly come from God? Even if you agree with the policies themselves, they are by definition not reasoned or thought through. (Apologies for the bad English)

  • i know it's bad of me to not listen to arguements contrary to my position, but when i hear Anne Widdencombe speak all i can hear is my brain saying shut the fuck up Widdencombe!

  • "Africa has been sucked dry ... by those people, by those multi-nationals"

    Now think about who those people may be ...

  • Wow, this is baffling! Annes answer about female politicians makes as much sense as someone watching say Shreck and pointing out "This movie's stupid, Donkeys can't fly!".

  • Is it just me or does John (pedo defender, yeh yeh, immature) keep defeating the validity of his own arguments with his answers?

  • @ 2:19 Ann waits for a big round of applause but gets nothing.....lol

  • @westben2000 sorry 4:19

  • Fry's a beast on the mic

  • @blakdust3 And a British beast at that...but so is Christopher Hitchens. : )

  • @writersblock26

    no argument here :D

  • Strange thing is the Archbishop never answered the question about his finery and the opulent Apostolic Palace. All he did was deny even when the evidence is literally on him.

  • 7:55 the woman talks like Tony Montana.

  • Holy crap is that women fucking serious? The ten commandments contribute to human morality my ass.

  • 7:09 for annes horny face.. u like??

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  • @2112murphy

    Ha! This is a good one! You mean he/she turns to Stephen Fry saying: "You're a very naughty boy...!"

    XoD

  • What a bunch of hypocrites these catholics are... there's probably none of the 10 commandements, against which they haven't breached!

    "Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal"... etc.

    But it's always easier to blame others, isn't it...

  • Do christians really believe everyone went round killing each other before tho shalt not kill was written in the bible. The 10 commandments are pointless, they are either obvious, out dated or immoral

  • @pedgarrett123  Even the African guy agrees at 04:28.. people knew about the moral in the ten commandment before they were chirstain

  • HER VOICE!!!!! I know believe in hell - an endless lecture from her.

  • Forgive me if I`m wrong but isn`t it Ann Widdencombe`s job to try and win people over to her cause?

    I`m sure she achieved the exact opposite in many cases.

  • 7:05 = Anna Hitchslapping herself

  • I would like to ask this woman how many times is the virgin Mary mentioned in the bible. As far as I know, 0 times. So how can she represent someone who is not part of the roman church´s dogma.

  • WHAT ATE YOU FOR? haha and i hate hate ann widdecombe

  • The Roman Catholic Church didn't give us the 10 commandments. They come from the old testament which is not a Roman Catholic document as far as I'm aware. The Roman Catholic Church have their own version of the 10 commandments. They had to take out the commandment about idol worship and split one of the other commandments to suite their needs. The sooner the Roman Catholic Church is wiped off the face of the earth the sooner we can evolve as a species and I truly believe that.

  • @djgraememaclean TESTIFY

  • It's kind of ironic that Stephen Fry would make a good preacher.

  • @raggamuffins13 He would preach reality.

  • I love it when the audience laugh at the woman in pink's ridiculous question to Christopher Hitchens about the 10 commandments.

  • She does a great Julia Child.

  • 4:01 I swear she is doing that Monty Python skit about SPAM watch?v=M_eYSuPKP3Y with that stereotypical voice.

  • So unmarried people should be chaste (haha), but when homosexuals want to get married, the church apposes it. WTF.

  • no pope can talk like fry..

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  • Stephen Fry gave them a jolly good spanking

  • she sounds like umbridge from harry potter. ha ha

  • Moses killed a man and knew it was wrong before the ten commandments were ever written.

  • wtf has killing, stealing, committing adultery, and coveting got to do with rich bankers? This woman is insane!

  • The archbishop said his father knew the ideas of the ten commandments before he became a christian. I think he basically implied that humanity doesn't need the bible to tell us what is right & wrong, that people come to the same conclusions on their own. This, then, brings into question, are the commandments an original idea or a plagiarism of ideas already long used by humanity before the bible's writing?

  • @Deadman3913 I think that's obvious since humans wrote up the bible and its rules.

  • @TheJb1rd You're correct. It is obvious to many, including myself, but it's not obvious everyone. Many still view the 10 rules as an original idea from a heavenly deity (never mind that the same rules can be found in ancient Egyptian religion that predates the bible by a huge chunk of time). Hence, the question gets posed in the hopes that a few of those folks will seek out, and find, a rational answer.

  • @Deadman3913 --St Paul taught that the Decalogue is written on the human heart; He said that while the Jews have the Law spelled out for them, they violate it, while the Gentiles who have not the Law, follow it nonetheless.

  • @Deadman3913 1-4 aint really moral propersitions.. It's statements to remind the servant who's the boss... one god.. false prophets/no idols...Dont take his name in vain (this is the fear bit.. coz what is using it in vain? You've got no chance) Respect the day of rest (Your not cooler then the lord!) #5 is an bit of an execpting as it appears moral, tho in context the intended is shown(Be nice to mum and dad = land when they die) 6-9 Is moral i'll grant em that.. #10 is negating thrift..

  • @Deadman3913 Obviously a plagiarism.

  • @Deadman3913 Most of those are completely obvious things that we've been doing since long before we could even name them, otherwise we wouldn't have survived. People that say the world will degenerate without Christianity seem to have forgotten that we've survived quite a bit longer than the ten commandments and society did just the opposite of degenerate into an animal society. Because it's obvious to us as a human being how not to destroy ourselves. We don't need fear of any gods.

  • @Deadman3913 the ten commandments were stolen from the 42 ancient commandments of ancient egypt.

  • His analogy of the anorexic and bulimic individuals to the church's baffling preoccupation with all things sex is brilliant.

  • @JCaesar11 -- Ive been back with the Catholic Church for 11 yrs now and have not noticed what you seem to think i.e. "preoccupation with sex"; can you point out exactly how we are "preoccupied"?

  • @JCaesar11 It's actually anorexics and the morbidly obese, but you're absolutely right, it's brilliant. : ) I only point it out because I'm pretty sure that the "anorexics" are those sex-starved, and the "morbidly obese" are those who have much more than is healthy. I think Stephen Fry meant it as a comment on both the Church's preoccupation with what they are not allowed to have, and the Church's hypocrisy on this matter (such as with the child rape discussed). Absolute genius, I thought. : D

  • @trailblazer225 Apologies I only watched it briefly after a taxing day. The point still stands perfectly however, distilled down to it's core constituents; those who are most obsessed with an idea typically have some abject neurosis regarding it, i.e. morbidly obese/anorexic with food, R.C.C with all things sex.

  • @JCaesar11 --We have guidelines about sex, but its the world system going ape-shit about it. "Humana Vite" is the first letter about sexuality that I know of from Paul VI; why dont you give a critique about it since you are the one with the "healthy" attitude about sex.

  • @VictoryInJesus454 If it is "Humanae Vitae" you are referring to, that is an encyclical from 1968, banning the pill, for fuck's sake. I knew your club was a bit backwards, but come on.

  • @JCaesar11 No apologies needed. I agree with you completely.

  • @JCaesar11 --Not brilliant at all. The world system is the ones pre-occupied with sex; watched any TV as of late?

  • Aside from a lot of rumbling and roaring, the Archbishop doesn't say very much at all.

  • her voice......

  • I cannot stand that woman's voice. She radiates bigoted ignorance.

    I feel sorry for the bishop. I feel like he is a decent person, but he has that awful politician on his side.

  • THEN WHAT ARE YOU FOR! Woah he shouted that lol.

  • Yes, us Catholics despise homosexuality. However, that does not refer to the person. It refers to the homosexual act. The official teaching of the Church is to "Love the sinner, hate the sin." We are taught to treat EVERYBODY, regardless of their sexual orientation, with love, dignity, kindness, and respect.

    The teaching for people with sexual attraction to strive to live a chaste life. Like all of us, by self-mastery, prayer and grace should gradually and resolutely reach Christian perfection.

  • @rockstar696 And do you also despise mountains, rivers and stars? Because it damn well comes down the same. This is nothing but religious tribalism. A way of making one self feeling good by singling out some group and declaring them outsiders. Back in the day, some righteous burning would be called for. But since the world in general has moved on a bit, the only recourse is this cognitive dissonance of "Love the sinner, hate the sin."

    Bah, humbug.

  • @TomFynn The teaching of the Church as a whole has ALWAYS been to love EVERYBODY. Now I can't speak for individual members of The Church. We are all sinners and are capable of choosing to love or not to love. Whether to hate or not to hate people who are different. As i said, we are ALL called to Christian perfection, straight or gay.

  • @rockstar696 Oh, yes, love everybody. Except of course Jews, Heretics, Albigengians, Cathars, Women, Gays...

    As for everybody being a sinner...speak for yourself, but leave me out of it.

    Oh and as for perfection. Bah, humbug.

  • @TomFynn

    Baseless accusations. There has been a bad history in the Church, but the Church is much more accepting now and does truly love everybody: even gays whose behavior is not approved of. You can be loving without being approving. 

  • @TomFynn Obviously i'm not dealing with an intelligent human being here. Food for thought: Next time you try and attack the Church, do your homework.

    The witch hunts were conducted by Protestant Christians, not Catholics. Especially the Salom witch hunts.

    It was the the state who executed heretic, not the Church. The vast majority Inquisition documents state that there was no case to be tried. If there was a case, the person was asked to recant, do penance and change their character.

  • @TomFynn

    durring the holocaust, the Papal residence was wide open to Jewish refugees from all over Europe. Pope Pius XII authorized bishops to give documents to Jews stating they they were Catholic and made countless condemnations against the Nazis.

    As for women..Christianity as a whole (Protestants included) has been nothing but empowering for women! It was after all women who first announced the Lord's resurrection. Many of the Saints (even doctors of the Church) are women.

  • @TomFynn

    As for out teaching regarding those of any sexual orientation, I've already stated that the Church treats them with love and charity. How individual members of the Church may treat them does not reflect its teaching but rather their own pride, selfishness, and hate.

    So please. If you are going to attack the Church, do your homework and research.

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  • @rockstar696 Well I could not find any Encyclical of Pius XVII, on account of him not existing, but after reading Summi Pontificatus by Pius XII, I found that it links men as brothers by the common recognition of a supernatural ownership. So basically it condemns one totalitarian ideology in favor of another. I am not impressed. Oh, and the opening of the papal residence was pointless, since it happened *after* all the Jews had be deported from Rome…

  • @TomFynn woops correction Pope Pius XII.

    Pointless? Tell that to Moshe Sharett, Gold Meir, The World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Herzog, and the countless other Jews who survived the holocaust because of efforts put forth by Catholic Church when other nations like the US, my home of Canada, and Russia slammed their doors shut to Jewish refugees and turned a deaf ear to their pleas for help.

  • Of course The Vatican opened her doors to Roman Jews when they were deported, they had no where else to go except the camps

  • @TomFynn

    There is no such thing as "righteous burning". Catholics don't sentence people to hell. We honestly don't know the exact combination of things you would have to do to go to hell, if there is one. Lastly, we don't believe hell is filled with fire, so why don't you stop arguing with a medieval Catholic Church and get your facts straight.

  • @rockstar696 An open door policy knowing that the Italians were too catholic to dare any revenge, while telling the local bishops that they were in effect on their own. Judging by the vast number of bishops who publicly stood up to the Nazis, their trust in a heavenly reward can’t have been too strong….

    BTW: Countless public condemnations, directly addressed to the Nazis and unambiguously damning the holocaust? If there are any, I would like to see those.

  • @TomFynn The local bishops were on their own? You haven't read any encyclicals of Pope Pius XVII, like Summi Pontificatus, have you? They tell the local bishops to stay true to the preservation of life and the condemnation of Nazi anti-semitism. Unfortunately, when these bishops spoke out against the Nazis, they retaliated by arresting the Jewish "converts" and Jews. Refer to the case in the Netherlands when the Archbishop of Utrecht spoke out and the Nazi's retaliated.