Hitchens vs Blair

That’s right, on Friday Tony Blair, the former British PM and recent convert to Catholicism, debated atheist firebrand Christopher Hitchens in Toronto. The debate question was, “Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world.” They conducted audience votes on the motion, the vote of the 2700 audience members at the start of the debate was 22% in favor of the motion, 57% opposed, 21% undecided, I’ll let you know the results of the vote at the end of the debate after you’ve had a chance to watch the videos. They additionally found at the start of the debate that 75% of the audience would be willing to change their minds based on what they hear.

Unfortunately it was posted on YouTube with it’s absurd rule that videos cannot be more than 15 minutes long, it’s in the lowest resolution (even my phone can do better), the sound isn’t synced, who ever put it together was too incompetent to link the videos, and the first video is the driest intro imaginable, so I have embedded parts 2 – 9, the ones which actually include the debate. Enjoy!
Update – Due to copyrights the videos were removed from YouTube, you can find the video at http://munkdebates.com/debates/Religion for $2.99. While it was good, the Dembski debate was just as good and it’s free.

In the final vote the resolution was defeated by a margin of two to one, according to the BBC. According to Munk Debates it was 32% pro and 68% con. Hitchen’s rocked it!

Back in July 2002 I knocked on Tony Blair’s door. While you may think that’s absurd, and justifiably so, it’s true. I was in the United Kingdom representing the United States on the International Air Cadet Exchange and the rest of the American delegation  nominated me to knock on the door of 10 Downing Street, where we had assembled for official photos (US, Turkey, and Hong Kong pictured below, I’m in the back row third from the right), to present some mementos from the United States to the Prime Minister via his doorman.

  Mr. Blair was in his residence that day, that was his official Jaguar that I am pictured in front of (I’m on the right) and if the Jag is in the driveway, the PM is home.