Complete video at: fora.tv Oxford University theologian Alister McGrath debates atheist author Christopher Hitchens on whether the goals of mainstream religions can be separated from those of their extremist “fringes.” This is part three of a three-part excerpt. Part one: www.youtube.com Part two: www.youtube.com —– Poison or Cure? Religious Belief in the Modern World: A debate, dialogue, and discussion with Christopher Hitchens and Alister McGrath. The Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University host a debate between writer Christopher Hitchens and Oxford University professor Alister McGrath on the role of religious belief in the modern world. Christopher Hitchens is an author, journalist and literary critic. Now living in Washington, DC, he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair, The Nation and Slate; additionally, he is an occasional contributor to many other publications. He is most recently the author of “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” (2007) and editor of “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever” (2007). Alister McGrath is a biochemist and Christian theologian born in Belfast, North Ireland. He currently enjoys the title of distinction “Professor of Historical Theology” granted by the University of Oxford. He has written extensively on history and theology, including “In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a …
@emnity33 Are you being so obtuse intentionally? Are you really saying Hitchens does not counter McGrath at every junction whilst McGrath struggles to answer very direct and clear questions with any sense of clarity. You are either blinded by your faith or stupid.
Probably both.
Its so funny.. new atheists think Hitchens and Dawkins are the best thing since sliced bread. Their way of ”debating” is complete emotionalism, and sarcastic joking… rarely do I see them debate. (awaits my comment to get 100 replies from angry atheists here on youtube xD)
@ColonelGaypenguin Hitchens isn’t unbeatable.. he rarely refutes the actual? arguments at hand. If by ”unbeatable” you mean ignores the arguments.. then you’re right. He is very unbeatable.
@emnity33 Hitchens is brash and bombastic but on the subject of religion he is unbeatable and he knows it! He thoroughly enjoys making the religious apologists wriggle and squirm as they attempt to defend the indefensible by claiming real knowledge and understanding of a supernatural force – of their own variety, naturally. Religious dogma is ridiculous baseless ancient propaganda and Hitchens, like me, is thoroughly fed up with its influence on impressionable people.
Christians talk such bollocks! As semi intelligent beings, surely they embarrass themselves as they spout their nonsensical and baseless platitudes.
Hitchens isn’t unbeatable.. he rarely refutes the actual arguments at hand. If by ”unbeatable” you mean ignores the arguments.. then you’re right. He is very unbeatable.
You r damn right tobleronasahilv
Kill these muslim bastards before they kill humanity
@SAVAGEGREENMACHINE 6.8 billion. Give it a few years.
Islam wants to destroy us and our civilisation, we should destroy theirs and Islam first, thats the only option, to be eaten or to eat them. 100% correct Hitchins, this christian humbug has gone from a virtue to blind cowardice and crazyness, we’ll be eaten if we dont start defending ourselves.
i bet Hitchens is not a fan of gandi.
i would realy like to hear his perspective on gandi haveing gotten his followers to go out and get clubed just to prove a point.
@Tarn1968 You wish that was true.
@rugbyboy198127 Perhaps not religion itself, but the corrupt institutions that represent them. It’s just a man made bureaucracy. Religion should be something as intimate as your underwear, but religious fanatics insist in shoving their crazy ideas down everyone’s throats. It’s ironical they keep preaching values they aren’t even able to follow, which sound very nice on paper, but not so convenient when THEY have to practice them.
@rugbyboy198127
”you say you for one ‘enjoy it’? ”
Yes, imagine a world without terrorist attacks in the name of god, or rituals mutilating genitals of kids, or people rejecting science on the grounds of an old disproven book, or censorship from the religious.
”doing away with religion, cant reconcile that statement as a human being!”
Of course I for one can, and im not sure why you cannot as well, what does religion do for humanity that cannot be done secularly without it?
@rugbyboy198127
“but it is not always this way?! “
No, not all religions are that way.
“but where is the need to get rid of religion completely say you would wish?“
Because it is impossible to get rid of the bad without getting rid of the good too, if you dont get rid of the entire infection it will just keep coming back. There is nothing in religion that makes a religious person able to do anything that cannot be also done by a secular humanist.
@rugbyboy198127
“one musn’t judge the world by the modern relationships of science and judeo-christianity in europe and the states…“
Actually in fact thats what one MUST judge it on.
“infact islamic practice was instrumental in the development of maths and physics“
Give me one correleation between the actual religion or religious practices and the development of maths and physics. Having someone develop them by just happening to belong to that faith isnt a correlation OF the faith.
@rugbyboy198127
“this is a fundamental principle/attitude of yours! you set out your belief system (one of atheism or whatever it may be) and you hope/wish that this be the only position available to others“
Excuse me, when did I ever tell you what my belief SYSTEM was? Atheism isnt a belief system, believing the world would be a better place without religion isnt a belief system nor is it fundamentalism in any sence, what it is is personal opinion.
@rugbyboy198127
“well yes because you are quite ‘religious’ about your principle that you would rather live without religion!”
I’m not religious about it and i’m not sure you even know what the word means, it’s a set of beliefs, plural, I believe the world would be a better place without religion, this is 1 belief singular, it is not religious in any way shape or form.
THERE ARE 9.5 BILLION PEOPLE ALIVE TODAY, THATS 9.4 BILLION TOO MANY. WE NEED TO START DEPOPULATING THE PLANET, AND STARTING WITH THESE RELIGIOUS IMBECILES IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO! ALL RELIGION HAS EVER DONE IS CREATE A PLATFORM FOR RACISM AND CHILD ABUSE, NOT TO MENTION HOLDING BACK PROGRESS AT EVERY STAGE OF THE WAY!
@rugbyboy198127 READ A BOOK MORON!
@Feralus69 TOO RIGHT!
@Feralus69 i don’t even begin to understand your silly analogy, but yes i agree certain religions have some very bad traditions as do other communities, some non-monotheist and some non-’religious’ and yes lets get rid of all these horrible ideologies/traditions, persuade them to change through discourse and example, but where is the need to get rid of religion completely say you would wish? you say you for one ‘enjoy it’? doing away with religion, cant reconcile that statement as a human being!
@Feralus69 one musn’t judge the world by the modern relationships of science and judeo-christianity in europe and the states… infact islamic practice was instrumental in the development of maths and physics in the arabic world and religious exchange, learning and fusion enabled this knowledge to be passed to others etc… catholic christianity is represented by the progress of the humans of that era… ie: not very enlightened, it is an awful episode in history, but it is not always this way?!
@Nickcloudy yes its great to see that the liberal, reasoned and open qualities so fundamental to atheism are still going strong amonst some atheists today… there are many ‘religious people’ who make this same arguement very well, tony benn for example, however listen to hitchens from 3.30 on… thats scary man! i dont like his tone here atall, very dangerous language indeed, yet mcgrath answers him very eloquently indeed – infact he shoots him down in flames, hitchens comes accross as biggoted
@Feralus69 well yes because you are quite ‘religious’ about your principle that you would rather live without religion! this is a fundamental principle/attitude of yours! you set out your belief system (one of atheism or whatever it may be) and you hope/wish that this be the only position available to others, ie: a world without religion, fundamenatlism need not be that bad, it depends upon which principles ones holds as fundamental, but it is fundamentalism none the less! an agressive athiest?!
@rugbyboy198127
“relgion and science need to come back together”
Religion and science were never together to begin with, having scientists that were/are religious is different from having them together.
“religion is as neccessary to the human soul as science is”
Really? Since when has religion ever furthered our understanding of anything? Ever?
“they need not be in such opposition”
Except their nature is in opposition, science is slowly doing away with religion, I for one enjoy it.