When Tony Blair the believer meets Christopher Hitchens the atheist

[HarveyDarkey]

The former prime minister and the writer are due to have a religious debate. It might go like this . . .

Tickets for a head-to-head between Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens go on sale today. The drawback is that the event is in Toronto. The newly converted Catholic former prime minister and the trenchant polemicist and atheist will debate the motion: "Be it resolved, religion is a force of good in the world." Here's how it might go . . .

Hitchens: Do you think it's curious we're meeting somewhere neither of us live?

Blair: Not at all. God told me to go forth and spread the word among the heathen.

Hitchens: Did he also mention you'd probably be lynched if you went back to the UK, and that the Canadians aren't that bothered by the situation in the Middle East?

Blair: A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country.

Hitchens: Chill out. I don't give a toss about Iraq. I was up for nuking the place from the start.

Blair: It is sometimes hard to perform God's work.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/13/tony-blair-christopher-hitchens-religion

[laconicsax]

1. Hitchens (and Stephen Fry) already won a similar debate.

http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/catholic-church

It was a rout:

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

[trotsky]

2. Stephen Fry is on my list...

of the Top Ten Coolest People in the World.

[Nihil]

3. That sounds like the ultimate thing in events that I *don't* want to see ...

Blair and Hitchens in the same room?
:puke: