Hitchens vs. the Catholic Church

I’m not always a fan of Christopher Hitchens, whom I often find to be too coarse and provocative for his (and others’) own good, but one cannot deny the fierceness of the blows he delivers when he launches against the Church and religious amorality and hypocrisy. Below is a video of a speech he gave at the Intelligence Squared debate, in company of Stephen Fry, against a motion being proposed that asks whether the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world or not. (Quick answer: it ain’t.) His segment ends at the five minute mark; the rest is taken up by Ann Widdencombe, an apologist for Catholicism who brings up the usual old excuses and fallacies.

Notice how the bulk of Widdencombe’s argument seems to be, “Yeah, the Church did some mean things, but, hey, other people did them, too!”. She goes on and on about how Hitchens supposedly “ignored” the (comparatively few) good things the Catholic Church has done, despite Hitchens having touched on this exact subject numerous times in his speech. Ironically, she then herself ignores pretty much everything else that Hitchens talked about – the Church’s unpardonable crimes against humanity throughout history, its persecution of homosexuals (amongst other minorities), its virulent history of antisemitism, etc. It makes you wonder if apologists like her ever pay any attention to what her opponents say and the arguments they use.

(via God is for Suckers!)
Technorati tags: Catholicism · Catholic Church · Christopher Hitchens · Ann Widdencombe · apologetics · Christianity