By MJP CAMPBELL - YOUNG FREETHOUGHT
Added: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:00:04 UTC

Last November saw a much needed spectacle in the public debate between reason and superstition. The ineffable and unflappable Christopher Hitchens bravely took to the debating floor in his cancerous state to oppose former British Prime Minister and skilled speaker Tony Blair in the motion that religion is a force for good in the world. The audience vote at the start and at the end came out in Hitchens’ favour and rightly so. His remarkable eloquence stood steadfast alongside his unquestionable argumentation to deliver a debating feast. Whilst Blair’s manner throughout was impressively crafted, the content of his words was slim.

First off, Hitchens put forward his case which may be familiar to most of our readers. I cannot summarise his words better than he puts them in the first place, so here they are. (If you ever wanted a ‘Why Atheism is Best’ summary in 553 words then this is it). He begins with a quote from the recently beatified Cardinal Newman:

“The Catholic church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail and for all the many millions on it to die in extremist agony than one soul … should tell one wilful untruth or should steal one farthing without excuse.”

You’ll have to say it’s beautifully phrased, but to me, and this is my proposition, what we have here, and picked from no mean source, is a distillation of precisely what is twisted and immoral in the faith mentality. Its essential fanaticism, it’s consideration of the human being as raw material, and its fantasy of purity.
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... Read more Video of the debate also below the fold if you haven't seen it.

TAGGED: CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, REVIEWS, SPEECHES