Hitchens on the Catholic Church

One of the great rants by Christopher Hitchens was when he participated in a debate in England put on by the Intelligence Squared organization in October 2009. The subject being debated was: The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world. His opponents were a Catholic bishop from Africa (Archbishop John Onaiyekan) and Catholic MP Ann Widdecombe. Supporting him was Stephen Fry. In fact, this rant has been called his best ever on the subject of the Catholic Church. A version of this video has already been posted on You-Tube, but this video focuses on just this rant by Hitchens.

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• atheist
• atheism
• Christopher Hitchens
• catholic church

[Darkarix]

@6:09 even the nun is clapping her hands for chris!

[risqueclay]

I was raised Catholic. I went to a Catholic school for many years. I was made to feel horrible guilt over things like eating a hot dog on Friday or forgetting to wear my veil in church. In the meantime, the head priest of our church was molesting the altar boys. I have complete and utter contempt for the Catholic Church. They knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it.

[TasteOfVengeance5]

I'm going to laugh when the pope (pedophile protecter) dies and rids the world of his filth. God is a fairytale that man made thousands of years ago because they didn't have the knowledge that we have to day.

[TwinSmoke]

@apologeticacattolica So you are trying to prove that God doesn't exist. Thanks. That's all I need to know. You obviously don't believe in the Bible. So why don't you go to an atheist thread? I believe every word the Bible says. That's where we differ.

[apologeticacattolica]

@TwinSmoke I'm asking you to elucidate how you come by your understanding of history, how you know that these are indeed "facts" of history. You say it's a fact that the ten commandments were given to Moses, that he built an ark, etc. How do you know these are facts? To what process of investigation do you submit these claims so as to ascertain their basis in actual history?

[TwinSmoke]

@apologeticacattolica Moses WAS the author or Genesis. How do I know about Moses' relationship with God? How about the fact that the ten commandments were given to him? Or how about the fact that he created the ark because God told him to? Or how about the fact that he struck a rock and created water in the middle of the desert because God told him to. How about the fact that he parted the Red Sea? Are you kidding me? Are you trying to disprove God exists?

[parraphrase]

@mikemfd232 I'm sure you know that what you've rejected is baptized paganism masquerading as Christianity. I applaud your stand for conscience. Make sure you don't make Hitchens or any other person, no matter how erudite, your new priest.

[parraphrase]

Regarding the Papacy and the injustices committed by it: Well said! He sounds like a true protestant. I just wish he understood that his atheism is the byproduct of papal tyranny not true faith. I wish he knew that prophecy predicted the rise of the anti-christian anti Biblical papal power and the subsequent rise of atheism as a response to it.

[apologeticacattolica]

@TwinSmoke Since Moses' name is not cited as the author of Genesis, you would do well to actually look at some scholarly sources so as to learn about its composition. Furthermore, EVEN IF Moses were the author of Genesis, how do you know that what he says about his relationship to God is true? By what process do you verify such things?

[TwinSmoke]

@apologeticacattolica Moses wrote the book of Genesis and everyone knows that Moses had a very personal relationship with God. Moses was given the ten commandments by God. Moses created the ark because God told him to. Moses struck a rock in the desert and created a river because God told him to. So, "Be fruitful and multiply" were the words of God passed on by Moses.

[apologeticacattolica]

@TwinSmoke God doesn't speak or say anything in a book. Human authors do. How do you *know* that these human authors were told by God to be fruitful and multiply? Who wrote the book of Genesis?

[augustmaquet]

@Abolisher1 Michael Tsarion is the worlds premier conspiracy researcher/lecturer/author. Leo Zagami, Jordan Maxwell and Alexandre Dumas pere are highly informative as well.