Christopher Hitchens and Tony Jones 7 of 11 , 07 October 2009 10:00

[BritishArrow]

Yes, Hitch at his best. Agreed.

[Kneleist]

snapped his shit up

[MrTonyInchpractice]

interviewer's good, yo. as an interviewer. leading hitchen's on2 his favourite subjects, challenging hitch strongly and seldomly enough to keep hitch on his toes which is what hitch presumably likes and, while hitch IS giving the sustained performance of his life, it's because the interviewer's helping him.

just imagine jonathon ross in the pastor's place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and i depressed for each and every one of those exclamash points). don't imagine it.

hitch resplendent

[arlosdad]

@MrTonyInchpractice Jonathon Ross to Hitch, "never mind about God and religion, look at this picture of my dog's bum!"

[robthefisherman]

What a fantastic speaker, Hitchens was one of the best. I wish more people were like him

[MasterRobinHood]

And i want to make sure when its my turn to hemorrhage, there enough blood around when i need it. Awesome!

[betsingerb]

i thought he said "I love giving blood, more that shitting it" at 7:04 but i guess he must have said "shedding it"

[cruelbusiness1984]

@thickhead11 but u still believe in the dogma. I don't get it.

[cruelbusiness1984]

this pastor is quite dense. its like he can't grasp hitchens concept that u can b good 4 its own sake, that we're not all selfish bastards

[jlp1981]

@cruelbusiness1984 Which pastor? I hope you're not talking about the journalist who is busily playing devils advocate beside him on the stage.

[mchchicago78]

You're describing a culture, and praising it, precisely to the extent that it doesn't resemble a religion. Is that me having it both ways.

Razor sharp intelligence, perception, and wit.

[strikenetter]

What Jones is suggesting is, if Bolle' was stripped of its religion, the people would be just as immoral as the secular black men whom fought alongside MLK. What a horrific thought! Is Jones really serious on this point? There are many who believe in a spiritual life here in the US, they don't believe an any special deity, they don't stand on street corners trying to sell you their belief, they thankfully fail to threaten you with everlasting torment for not buying what they sell, etc.

[cruelbusiness1984]

@strikenetter yes. darkmatter2525 compares this 2 selling someone a car without letting them see it or test drive. well I hav lots of people who've seen it, well I hav all the registration papers right here, well I know its a blue pontiac. 'but I need 2 test drive the car, let me c it.' then others come on and claim the car is red, no its a corvette. its much like religion. the truth doesn't change, yet they're claiming it does by disagreeing with each other

[josenros]

The blood of Hitchens. Welll, I'd much rather have that flowing through me than the blood of christ...

[cruelbusiness1984]

@josenros yes because air bubbles in the veins cause problems :P

[nickleus1977]

"The Salvation Army's position is that because it is a church, Section VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly guarantees its right to discriminate on the basis of its religious beliefs in its hiring (concerning homosexuals). To reinforce its position, it threatened to close all soup kitchens in New York City when the city government proposed legislation that would require all organizations doing business with it to provide equal benefits to unmarried domestic partners."

[nickleus1977]

"*people* of faith" is not the same as "religion". these salvation army people didnt make up the religion (its actually an evangelical christian church), nor are they the authoritative representatives for that religion/church. the creepy fact about the salvation army is that their crest/flag contains the words "blood" and "fire". enough said.

[cruelbusiness1984]

@nickleus1977 and they actively try 2 persecute gays, avoiding helping homeless gays and advocating for banning thier marriage rights. real moralistic huh :)

[FlyingOverTr0ut]

The beginning of these videos with the same audio clips are really annoying. I always skip past them.

[alphacause]

Hitchens is so correct in this segment. People are civil and nice, precisely to the extent that they ignore large portions of their religious dogma and what their religious institutions have to say. The more they abide by the precepts of their religious faith, the more they are inclined to behave in a barbaric, belligerent, and bigoted way.

[stoprainingonme]

hey everyone! Thanks for posting this! :-) great hitchens interview and great interviewer, too.

One thing... the message about the hitchenschannel at the beginning of EVERY SINGLE VIDEO is approaching the territory of Slightly Annoying-land

Cheers

[InnerSmile72]

Christ! In traditional Bali culture and sometimes even today boy-girl twins are forced to marry each other. So yes, religion poisons fucking everything. Culture and society evolve naturally and give us beautiful knowledge, technique and practice, but these must all be subject to reason and science as part as the infinite process of evolution

[o8QWERTYo8]

The Hitch is as sharp as a pin!

[AsG1989]

Hitchens gave him the look at 6:13, checkmate.

[bladit]

I love how, at the end of this clip, he's basically like, here let me finish that quote for you...

[Ellie8969]

What are you talking about? He's an incredibly eloquent man. Your spelling, on the other hand, stinks.

[yw84y2k]

Your example illustrates really well how religion can act as poison. But, no one here contests that. The fact remains that some people do good as a result of a religious delusion. Hitchens is oversimplifying, religion poisons, but it doesn't poison everything.

[Albtraumen]

@yw84y2k

Yes some people do good as the result of religion, for all the wrong reasons. It can't be much simpler than that.

No it doesn't poison ALL that it touches, but it distorts it. That's still not a good thing.

[yw84y2k]

I absolutely agree. That is in fact one way of how Hitchens could have put it better.

[Albtraumen]

@yw84y2k

Why thank you! That is a rare compliment indeed.

[Dafariii]

he has done so many times.

[saitamme]

why are people giving this comment a thumbs down? i think you've made a good point, and one i've heard him acknowledge as the EXCEPTION to the rule.

[yw84y2k]

Thanks for that bit of support :) You've made me curious too. Let's hear from some of you thumbs down people.

[faithisfiction]

Sweeping the floor Mr Hitchens, sweeping the floor....

[druidee1]

Tony is a good interviewer.

[QwidgyboMan]

Yeah? I agree he is quite good at letting the interviewee speak unfettered and uninterrupted but gee, some of those questions were downright laughable.

[mikeyman211]

I like having blood taken too. The nice/weird feeling is lovely.

[Killer0fTheSun]

Hitchens is clever here,one of the better interviews hes done.

[SvrchovaneCechy]

02:40 Good one..

[gnuochtapir]

Excellent point at 6:10!!!!

[irishmauddib]

6:10 perfect.

[byronic80]

"Silly, but probably harmless." :D :D

[BiffWebster100]

Tony Jones seems to be one of the better interviewers of Hitchens.

[NegativeNick]

9:00 I think the point the moderator is missing here is that while the soup kitchen owners might not be poisoning the homeless people who come to their shelter, they are poisoning their own minds by believing something that just isn't true. how so? you ask. well because their highest goal is to serve god not help people and there may come a time when those seem like two different ends.

[artyfarty2]

"These people are so nice that their hardly religious at all"

Priceless

[NegativeNick]

"one god...at the most" !!

[rfranklinw1]

@artyfarty2 LOL you are right! Don't mess with Hitch

[PurushaDesa]

Apologies for the impatience about Part 7 hitchenschannel. Again, great work!

[PTurchan1]

I would say this is Hitch as his best - he was on point and brought some fresh material.