Intelligence Squared Debate on BBC

[NateHevens]

Turns out this debate went over 2 hours, and they only aired about 47 minutes of it.


I WANT TO SEE THE WHOLE THING!!!!

I want to see 2-hours of Catholics getting pwned by Christopher Hitchens (I wish he wasn't so venomous towards, specifically, the belief in God, but his books are awesome and he manages to win every debate I've ever seen him in) and Stephen Fry (fan of his... admittedly, didn't know about him until "V for Vendetta", but damn, he is a great actor)!

 

[Salv]

iSAW7:
Christopher Hitchens would like to have a Homosexual babysitter? Apparently he hasn't learned from Michael Jackson or the Gay Catholic priests. BTW he was also a supporter, of public education until it came to his own children.

RedJenova:
Yeah, because, homosexual automatically equals child rapist. Fucking ignorant moron.

iSAW7:
Go ahead and hire, gay men to babysit your kids then, if you are so trusting.

jtmazing:
ur a dumbass... gay people are not child molesters!!! theres a difference between homosexuality, and being a pedophile

lol what... some of the comments are nuts.

The blasphemy talk was awesome. I have it on mp3, I can't remember where I downloaded it though.

 

[Dusty341]

I love how Fry called Anne Widecombe out in the closing comments for basically saying that it's typical for him and Hitchens to bring up homosexuality issue, pedophilia, and the safe sex issue against the Catholic Church and conveniently forgot all of the charity that the church is responsible for. Comparing that to a murderer saying in trial, that it was typical of the defense to bring up all the murders he has committed, and conveniently forgot that he sent his father a birthday card. And then in Anne Widecombe's closing comments she confirmed his condemnations by saying THOSE EXACT THINGS HE JUST CONDEMNED HER FOR!! Loved it! Priceless!

The Archbishop and Anne seemed to be completely unprepared for the opposition's arguments, and did a monumentally poor job at refuting them. It was no wonder the audience voted the way they did.

 

[xman]

The Archbishop and Anne seemed to be completely unprepared for the opposition's arguments, and did a monumentally poor job at refuting them. It was no wonder the audience voted the way they did.

I don't think it is wrong to say that Catholicism cannot stand up to scepticism, but it is surely equally true to say that a bishop and an MP don't stand a chance against a pair of writers.

Hey ... Two writers, a bishop and an MP walk into a church ...

 

[Dusty341]

The Archbishop and Anne seemed to be completely unprepared for the opposition's arguments, and did a monumentally poor job at refuting them. It was no wonder the audience voted the way they did.

I don't think it is wrong to say that Catholicism cannot stand up to scepticism, but it is surely equally true to say that a bishop and an MP don't stand a chance against a pair of writers.

Hey ... Two writers, a bishop and an MP walk into a church ...

Could be they cant stand up to skepticism because they went went unopposed for so long that they are now completely unprepared for the arguments brought against them.

 

[monitoradiation]

Well. The veracity of their "god claims" are totally unrelated to the debate That's a whole different issue.

The topic is whether or not the RCC is a force for good in the world; the archbishop and widdencombe had pathetic excuses to respond to arguments that official doctrines of the RCC make them not a force for good in the world.

I kinda felt badly for the archbishop and widdencombe. I wouldn't know how to argue from their position which are, in my opinion, indefensible.

 

[xman]

I kinda felt badly for the archbishop and widdencombe. I wouldn't know how to argue from their position which are, in my opinion, indefensible.

yeah. Claiming the higher ground of HIV charity work the whole time insisting that condoms, which are known to be the best defense against spreading the disease, is horrendous. They can hold on to that hill forever with policies like that and ensure the misery and death of millions all the way. How could one defend that?