Blair and Hitchens debate religion - BBC

The two men disputed religion in Toronto Friday night at the Munk Debates before a sold-out crowd of 2,600 — scalpers outside were asking as much as $500 a ticket — as thousands more watched online.

Blair argued for the proposition that religion is a force for good, while Hitchens was against it.

Preliminary results on the Munk website said 68 per cent of the votes backed Hitchens and 32 per cent Blair.

Both men gained about 10 percentage points from the pre-debate standings, when 21 per cent were undecided.

Hitchens argued that religion is divisive and causes conflicts or makes them worse.

Blair conceded that "horrific acts of evil" have been committed in the name of religion, but said people like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, who opposed religion, had been evil, too. "I agree in a world without religion, that the religious fanatics may be gone, but I ask you: Would fanaticism be gone?"

Blair pointed to the Northern Ireland peace process as an example of different religions working for peace.

Hitchens replied that 400 years of religious warfare in Ireland entailed "people killing each other's children depending on what kind of Christian they were."

"To terrify children with the image of hell ... to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?" Hitchens said.

Blair said bigotry and prejudice are not "wholly owned subsidiaries" of religion. But he said the hardest argument he faced was the assertion that evil done in the name of religion is based in scripture.

The ancient religious texts contain many ideas that now appear "very strange and outdated," he said, but religions must be seen as a whole.

Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair, wrote a book in 2007 called God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, which sharply criticized organized religion.

Blair started the Tony Blair Faith Foundation two years ago to promote understanding between religions.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/11/26/blair-htichens-religion.html#ixzz16...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• tony
• blair
• christopher
• hitchens
• debate
• religion
• faith
• atheist

[mohfoz77]

LET’S MAKE ALL MYTHS, RELIGIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS HISTORY.

[sulijoo]

Blair demolished his own argument when he admitted that he knows plenty of people who are not religious but "do good for their community and for the world". In that case, what is religion FOR? Blair's position was entirely "well, err, I believe because...well just because, ok?!". Hitchens won without even trying. It was pitiful, like candy from a baby.

[XmXeXnXtXoXrX]

Saving Millions of lives and poisoning Million of Minds! Well what about saving Million of Lives and without asking any kind of Brainwash? Tony you are one of the best politician ever, you are a good man too. But understand this: You are a good man because you choose too, you would as good as you are and even a better man if you truly believe that a man can be good only he/she chose to be good, religion is not an element of defining goodness, it only defines stupidity!!

[nickelbird103]

Men are created sick and will continue to remain sick until they find that God the Cure The only Cure and that There is no other Cure. The SICKNESS is Mans desire to resist God and live with out knowing God. It is strongly apparent to me that Mr. Hitchens Intensely Loves and desires God. For who loves Goodness, Justice and Mercy loves God ...Now ..all that is left is for God to reveal himself to Mr. Hitchens.

[MBoothe517]

@mozaic89 and it's just as ridiculous.

[MBoothe517]

@mariamhmha Arguments from ignorance and disbelief are pathetic.

[lakerskins21]

@mariamhmha So take a slice of humble pie and just face that your not as special as you'd like to think ad no magic man took time to hand craft a perfect world for you, your just an accident produced by complex chemistry while the universe was forming from something that you have no information on but the smartest people on the earth believe it was the big bang.

[lakerskins21]

@mariamhmha Science actually is taking time to understand the complexities of this universe and will one day humans will understand the workings of the universe through studying and laugh at the stupidity of modern people who actually believed in magic that could defy physics. So as to how the materials to make a rocket, car, or a computer came to be I don't know yet, but neither do you and your the one making up answers. So take a slice of humble pie and just face that your not as special as y

[lakerskins21]

@mariamhmha no religion originates from primal fears and ignorance of mankind ad his desires to understand in simple terms a complex thing. So most religion came up with an explanation any idiot could formulate, that a magic man created everything and he demands praise. Organized religion is a few political hustlers taking advantage of this primal fear and forming cults which they train to follow their lead. Science actually is taking time to understand the complexities of this universe and wi

[OliveFarmer1]

Discover the truth about the New World Religion, worshipping lucifer

Google

olive farmer crete blogspot

Blair is a part of this unified UN led luciferian religion, hundreds of years in the making, coming your way soon

[mariamhmhA]

look at the computer you are sitting at right now. now look at a car or a rocket. you think that they had to have been made by a human right. now look at your heart and your brain and the whole human body for that matter. now look at the arrangement of stars and planets. HOW might i ask could they have come up by chance are they not more complicated then your computer or car, only a clotpole wouldnt believe in god, religion is worshipping the one who gave you everything and saying thankyou.