Wednesday, December 05, 2012

The Intelligence Squared Debate: "The Catholic Church is a force for good"

I have upped two segments, those featuring Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, plus the complete 2009 debate.

If you watch nothing else, do watch Stephen Fry, I thought he came across particularly well.

This post debate report from the Telegraph.

Intelligence Squared debate: Catholics humiliated by Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry 
By Andrew M Brown
October 19th, 2009 
I have just witnessed a rout – tonight’s Intelligence Squared debate. It considered the motion “The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world”. Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry, opposing the motion, comprehensively trounced Archbishop Onaiyekan (of Abuja, Nigeria) and Ann Widdecombe, who spoke for it. The archbishop in particular was hopeless. 
The voting gives a good idea of how it went. Before the debate, for the motion: 678. Against: 1102. Don’t know: 346. This is how it changed after the debate. For: 268. Against: 1876. Don’t know: 34. In other words, after hearing the speakers, the number of people in the audience who opposed the motion increased by 774. My friend Simon, who's a season ticket holder, said it was the most decisive swing against a motion that he could remember. 
The problem (from the Catholic point of view) was that the speakers arguing for the Church as a force for good were hopelessly outclassed by two hugely popular, professional performers. The archbishop had obviously decided that it would work best if he stuck to facts and figures and presented the Church as a sort of vast charitable or “social welfare” organisation. He emphasised how many Catholics there were in the world, and that even included “heads of state”, he said, as if that was a clincher. But he said virtually nothing of a religious or spiritual nature as far as I could tell, and non-Catholics would have been none the wiser about what you might call the transcendent aspects of the Church. Then later when challenged he became painfully hesitant. In the end he mumbled and spluttered and retreated into embarrassing excuses and evasions. He repeatedly got Ann Widdecombe’s name wrong. The hostility of both the audience and his opponents seemed to have discomfited him. 
So it was left to Ann Widdecombe to defend the Church single-handedly. She did well, showed a light touch and took Hitchens to task for exaggerations and so on. But in the end Hitchens and Fry were able to persuade decisively by simply listing one after another the wicked things that have been done in the Church’s name over the centuries. More than anything they focused on the “institutionalisation of the rape and torture and maltreatment of children”. That’s what Hitchens called it – that's pretty much what it was – and Fry returned to it. I don't blame them for harping on about these unspeakable crimes, because there is no answer to them. Then they talked about the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. When Zeinab Badawi in the chair asked the archbishop whether Christ himself ever actually said anything about homosexuality, he replied by saying "that's not the point" or words to that effect, and sounded slippery. Blah blah


Stephen Fry dismantles the Roman Catholic Church, from the Intelligence Squared debate.




Christopher Hitchens about the Catholic Church from the Intelligence debate.




Filmed 19 Oct 2009, this is a segment of the intelligence² debate. Title of the debate: "The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world".

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Wingman is ready to roll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuOn2FugfL8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLPi8zkoP5E

Himself said...

It's a funny old world lass.

What's happened to me blog, its been invaded by third party links.

Anonymous said...

Good evening dear blogger,

Being Blogger illiterate, I have no idea what's happened. Is it visible on your blog?

Perhaps it's the Chrome thing, just guessing.

Hopefully, it gets resolved quickly.

Tea?

Himself said...

Good evening dear Lady.

Tweeted to me.

Inf0rm mE
@Inf0rmMe

@TeddyShepherd Read this earlier- Tumblr worm affects thousands of blogs

http://thehackernews.com/2012/12/tumblr-worm-affects-thousands-blogs.html

Himself said...

Just about to watch something on BBC iplayer, even that is infected,

Himself said...

Nederland – Moeder: “Hij zou haar zoon niet mogen omdat hij ‘trekjes had van een homo’”

http://bit.ly/SALQRZ

Morning Maren, the translation to English is a bit scrappy.

Anonymous said...

Hello H

One of those tragic stories.
http://bit.ly/SALQRZ

Sensational headline, but I think there's a more credible approach to the truth.

The 22-year-old-mother has borderline personality disorder and a 3-year-old son. Chico is her former friend, not her son’s father.

Family members of the woman confirm she hit her son systematically.

http://bit.ly/QSf0xw

How nice to have such a lovely family.

Later. M

Anonymous said...

On a lighter note.

Meanwhile, the boy lives with his father. It’s said that he’s doing well.

Anonymous said...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/cardinal-keith-o-brien-accused-inappropriate

Anonymous said...

http://en.mercopress.com/2012/07/24/argentine-military-dictator-confirms-catholic-church-hierarchy-was-well-aware-of-the-disappeared

Anonymous said...

http://reason.com/24-7/2013/03/13/pope-francis-i-may-have-some-complicity

Himself said...

Tweeted.

Anonymous said...

http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/skeletons-of-800-babies-infants-believed-to-be-buried-at-bon-secours-sisters-site/story-fnh81p7g-1226939959324

Anonymous said...

Jim, we are working with a number of police forces. Be happy to brief you on what we do.

https://twitter.com/WilmerMbe/status/615250518563164160