My only experience of Hitchens was on the Intelligence Squared debate
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AloG_pu1zmc
Where he was palpably more calm and dispassionate than Stephen Fry,
perhaps for obvious reasons. But while I agree broadly with the points
they have to make, I don't have a lot of respect for the means by which
they attempt to make them. It's shabby, and on the whole, ironically,
irrational because far from getting the faithful to see reason, it
only puts them into a defensive and all the more pious stance.
(
Bela Lugosi's Dad, Sun 11 Apr 2010, 15:56,
Reply)
Yeah he wasn't as annoying as usual in that debate.
To be honest I enjoyed the debate, was nice to see the catholic church get such a drumming in such a public way. But yeah I think your right, it sort of boiled down to an emotional reaction to what the church has done and is doing and only having the black and white choice of "force for good" "force for bad" or what ever, a bit frustraiting. The same argument could be said of the UK, what we've done in the past, some of the things we are doing now, it could be very easy to brand the UK as a force for bad in the world, but its not as simple as that.
This is interesting, dunno whether you've seen it. "Atheism is the new fundamentalism" www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVppTZxFn3Q&feature=related
(
Jorvic, Sun 11 Apr 2010, 16:16,
Reply)
That debate was entirely around the question "is the Catholic Church a force for good". Of course they were going to piss people off. Irrational I think not.
On the other hand, if I was Catholic and cared about defending the Church, I would be deeply ashamed about the lazy and patronizing non-intelligent defense Widdecombe and the bishop put forward. A "defense" of a Church that claims the moral high-ground on many issues that especially concern the poor and down-trodden of this world - something that should have been easy if there was any truth to it
They got slammed out of the park, and rightly so.
(, Sun 11 Apr 2010, 17:57, Reply)
by the way, if you want to see some videos that are possibly more effective at "deconverting" the religious take a look at
The "Why I am no longer a Christian" series by former Fundamentalist Christian and youtube user Evid3nc3.
Highly recommended even if you're not a believer.
(, Sun 11 Apr 2010, 18:08, Reply)