A special collection of stories from different guests: ‘Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me….’
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/04/30/3491849.htm?site=conversations
Tags / hitchens
Tagged with “hitchens”
(13)
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Williams Covenant Theology for Elders
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Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me… - ABC Conversations with Richard Fidler
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Christopher Hitchens in conversation with Paul Holdengraber | The New York Public Library
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Christopher Hitchens On Suffering, Beliefs And Dying : NPR
The outspoken atheist, gleeful provocateur and writer who has skewered everyone from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in June. He tells NPR’s Melissa Block he wishes he was suffering for a "good cause" or something "larger than just mere survival."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130917506
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Christopher Hitchens - Hitch-22
We talk with Christopher Hitchens about his memoir Hitch-22 and some of his more contrarian ideas.
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Christopher Hitchens on Religion
Christopher Hitchens has never been a friend to religion. The sharp-tongued British-born critic and provocateur called Mother Theresa “the Ghoul of Calcutta.” He was early and loud in denouncing “Islamic fascism.” He’s a dukes-up-on-all-fronts anti-theist.
With his new book, the gloves are really off. He’s called it: “god is not Great.” Subtitle: How Religion Poisons Everything. You may love it. Billions do.
But Hitchens calls organized faith “violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism and bigotry.” And that’s just for starters.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2007/05/11/christopher-hitchens-on-religion
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Haycast 03: Pervez Musharraf, Christopher Hitchens and Bill Bryson | Books | guardian.co.uk
We work the queue as the former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, ratchets security up a few notches, while Christopher Hitchens talks tragedy and confrontation and Bill Bryson goes looking for…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2010/may/31/haycast-musharraf-hitchens-bryson?intcmp=239
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Late Night Live: Christopher Hitchens | ABC Radio
May 27, 2010 on ABC Late Night Live All his life, Christopher Hitchens has written about war and conflict and politics, topics relevant to both his private and public life. In his new memoir, Hitch 22, he outlines how his obsessions shaped him as a writer and as a public intellectual.
Tagged with atheist atheism christopher hitchens science
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Intelligence Squared: The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world
Chair Zeinab Badawi introduces the motion ‘The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world.
Initial Vote: 678 For, 1102 Against, Undecided 346
Final Vote: 268 For, 1876 Against, Undecided 34
Arguing in favour of the motion are Archbishop John Onaiyekan and the Rt Hon. Ann Widdecombe MP.
Archbishop Onaiyekan begins by insisting that if the Catholic Church were not a force for good, he would not have devoted his entire life to serving it. He says that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church exists because of its 1.6 billion members worldwide, rather than in spite of them. He points not only to the spiritual assistance that his Church provides, but also to the tangible aid that is given internationally through Catholic projects. Finally, he admits that Catholics are not infallible, but are by necessity sinners trying to improve themselves through their faith.
Ann Widdecombe suggests that in trawling all the way back to the Crusades to find something to blame the Catholic Church for, Christopher Hitchens merely demonstrates how flimsy his argument really is. Why would the Pope have hidden 3,000 Jews in his summer palace during the Second World War if the Catholic Church was an antisemitic organisation? Admittedly, the New Testament does blame a Jew for the death of Christ; but it also blames a Roman, Pontius Pilate. Are we to infer then that Catholicism is anti-Italian as well as antisemitic? Widdecombe insists that the actions of the Catholic Church in the past should be judged with a degree of historical relativism; they were not the only people to murder and torture those deemed guilty of wrongdoing. She entreats us to imagine a world without the benefits of the Catholic Church, which provides hope, education and medical relief all over the globe.
Arguing against the motion are Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry.
Christopher Hitchens asserts that any argument trying to identify the merits of the Catholic Church must begin with a long list of sincere apologies for its past crimes, including but not limited to: the Crusades; the Spanish inquisition; the persecution of Jews and the forced conversion of peoples to Catholicism, especially in South America. He illustrates the vacuity of recent Catholic apologies by drawing on the case of Cardinal Bernard Law – shamed out of office in the US for his part in covering up the institutionalised sexual abuse of children – whose punishment from the Vatican was to be appointed a supreme vicar in Rome, and who was among those assembled in the 2005 Papal Conclave to choose the next Pope. Hitchens concludes by reminding the Archbishop that his own Church has been responsible for the death of millions of his African brothers and sisters, citing the Church’s disastrous stance on Aids prevention, as well as the ongoing trials in Rwanda in which Catholic priests stand accused of inciting massacre during the 1994 genocide.
Stephen Fry concedes that his opposition to the motion is a deeply personal and emotional one. He criticises the Catholic Church not only for the horrors it has perpetrated in the past, but also for its ideology, and for its sinister temerity to preach that there is no salvation outside of the Church. With two words he refutes Anne Widdecombe’s suggestion that the Catholic Church does not have the powers of a nation state: “The Vatican”. As a homosexual, Fry reflects how bizarre it is to be accused of being “immoral” and “a pervert” by an institution that has persistently hushed up the rape and abuse of children under its care, and whose leading members, abstentious nuns and priests, all share an attitude towards sex that is utterly unnatural and dysfunctional. He concludes by questioning whether Jesus, as a humble Jewish carpenter, would have approved of all the pomp and excess of the Catholic Church, and whether he would even have been accepted by such an arrogant organisation.
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Christopher Hitchens @ the Royal Ontario Museum June 2, 2009
Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, was part of the ROM’s Director’s Signature Series, entitled The Three New Commandments, coinciding with the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.
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