Tony Blair vs. Christopher Hitchens
For a debate about religion and its influence on world politics and humankind you could do no better than Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens. The two met in Toronto to hash it out.
Both men came amply equipped for this particular battle, of course. Post-Downing Street, the converted Catholic Blair has created a foundation that precisely seeks to close rifts between the world’s dominant faiths. To make sure that religion is indeed a positive force, he teaches about it at Yale. Hitchens, of course, wrote a book on the topic, God Is Not Great, wherein you will find much of the thesis that he brought to Toronto: religion is destructive, is based on superstitious hokum and, a bit like communism, might briefly seem noble until you see that it steals your every freedom away.
