The topic of religion always seems to generate impassioned posts. Over the week-end, BBC World aired a fascinating debate from Toronto on the subject of Religion as a Force for Good in the World. Taking part were Tony Blair, the ex-UK Prime Minister and a recent convert to Catholicism, and journalist, author and confirmed atheist, Christopher Hitchens, who happens to be suffering from terminal cancer.

 

Hitchens is a provocative, articulate, sarcastic, often brilliant, out-of-the-box thinker. He totally washed the floor with Blair as indicated by the audience response and the voting at the end. Thanks to his wit, the debate was full of delicious moments. Typical was -

 

“Once you assume a Creator and a plan, it makes us objects in a cruel experiment whereby we are created sick and commanded to be well. And over us, to supervise this, is installed a celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea, greedy for uncritical praise from dawn till dusk, and swift to punish the original sins with which it so tenderly gifted us in the first place.”

 

In response to a question from the audience, Blair raised the topic of the Northern Ireland peace process over which he presided in the late 1990s. He emphasised the point that peace was only possible because religious leaders from the Protestant and Catholic churches got together to bring about a situation where people were able to reach across the faith divide. An example of religion being a force for good.

 

Hitchens pounced on this. “Well,” he said, adding wickedly and pointedly, “where did the religious divide come from?” Pause for audience laughter. “400 years and more of people killing each other’s children depending on what kind of Christian they were, and sending each other’s children, in rhetoric, to hell.”

 

I loved it, but a lot of You Tube responders thought it was trash. The full debate can be seen on various You Tube clips titled Christopher Hitchens vs Tony Blair.

I saw it, as it was aired several times. I have not checked out the Utube comments, but I thought it was real intellectual treat. I have a funny feeling that most of the negative comments came from the USA. Unfortunately, my country is still deeply mired in its religious zeal.