Comments on: Hitchens and Fry v the Catholic Church

By: manicstreetpreacher

manicstreetpreacher — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:40:21 +0000

I was there on the night. It’s a shame that we are only treated to edited highlights for now. This was one of the best performances I’ve seen Hitchens give. And Stephen Fry was an utter revelation. I never knew he had it in him.

However, the event’s page at the Intelligence Squared website does imply that a DVD will be released, so hopefully we’ll be treated to the Full Hitchy soon rather than later:

http://www.intelligencesquared.....nt=EVT0195

In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with my totally objective, unbiased report:

http://edthemanicstreetpreache.....st-mortem/

Ahem…

By: pablo

pablo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:15:07 +0000

I would at least say the Christians are engaging in a debate, however one sided. Somehow I don’t see other notable religions doing the same thing.

By: David McNerney

David McNerney — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:27:17 +0000

Thank you for that. I really wanted to see it.

By: William Harwood

William Harwood — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:42:33 +0000

The deal Pope Peter XII made with Hitler was that, in exchange for the pope forbidding German Catholics from speaking out against the Final Solution, Hitler agreed to act as the pope’s tax collector. That concordat remains part of German law to this day. In recent years the only way tennis player Steffi Graf was able to avoid having a disproportionate share of her earnings seized and paid into the Vatican’s coffers, was to officially cease to be a Catholic.
The present German government calls itself “Christian Democrat”, as if the two parts of its name were not mutually exclusive.

By: rog

rog — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:41:02 +0000

4/5 so far, those Catholics look creamed

I’m thinking about entering the world of Blogging* http://flanfiction.blogspot.com/ this is my fist attempt so feel free to leave a comment, even if it is hateful… or not it’s up to you.

* I’m not really very verbose….

By: Stonyground

Stonyground — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:39:06 +0000

Dr. Harwood, I find your comment to be most interesting. I have long thought that every move and every utterance by the Catholic Church is very carefully calculated, the only consideration being the expansion of the Vatican’s power and wealth. The Bishop in this debate did come across as a simple and honest man who really believed in the proposition, in fact the ideal sheep for the vatican to throw to the wolves, or should that be lions?

On the subject of Catholics helping Jews to escape the Nazis, once the game was up, weren’t they quite active in helping Nazis escape justice?

By: Brian Brown

Brian Brown — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:47:19 +0000

If this was a boxing match it would have been stopped very early on.

A knocked for the Hitchens/Fry corner.

By: William Harwood

William Harwood — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:36:41 +0000

I can understand why the Catholic organized crime syndicate would choose to be represented by a low-ranking archbishop. The Vatican knew that Hitchins would pound the shit out of ANY defender of the god perversion, and since they dared not refuse to debate, they did the next best thing and threw a nobody from nowhere under the bus so that his annihilation could be attributed to his personal inadequacy rather than the bankruptcy of the position he was defending.

By: David Lawson

David Lawson — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:35:42 +0000

Stoneyground:

Good point on the charity work. As for Catholics helping Jews; the Vatican did actually help Jews escape the onslaught of Nazism, but only if they converted to Catholicism, which seems to me to be simply another form of persecution against Jews.

By: Harry D

Harry D — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:03:55 +0000

Many thanks for the links. It’s great to see a kicking like this (because it’s more than deserved).

How passionless and anemic the archbishop and Widdie were. They didn’t stand a chance really.