If you are ever going to publicly debate a religious person, I recommend that as part of your preparation you watch this 15-minute collection of clips of brutal Christopher Hitchens put-downs, referred to as ‘Hitchslaps’. The one he administers to someone defending circumcision (it begins at 11:50 and I think his victim is Harold Kushner) is a thing of beauty.
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
You sure find a lot of video gems to share. But for Christopher Hitchens to win his debate he must convince others that it is not only possible for people to be moral without religion, but probable. Religion just needs to get out of the way of all us naturally good people. (It’s not hard to get applause for this idea because most people believe they themselves are good persons and probably even better than most.) The problem is that many people, religious or not, do not have such a rosy view of human nature. And many religious people would rather trust in the ever bewildering mysterious good nature of a made-up divine being than in the good natures of their all-too-human neighbors. Christians are taught they are evil sinners who need to be saved by another’s divine goodness and teachings. Hitchens teaches they are evil sinners who need to be saved by his divine mortal goodness and teachings. Lucky for me, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
My reply, Your Infernal Highness, comes in the words of Steven Weinberg: “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”