Another Debate

Is it just me or is there an extraordinary amount of debating going on lately?

Just read the below posts to see what I mean.

I think it is a great thing actually because you get to hear people defend what they believe.

Check out this debate between Christopher Hitchens (he's everywhere lately or what?) and Chris Hedges, the anti-American journalist who just published a book entitled "American Fascists", a polemic against the Christian right. You would think these guys would be on the same side. Not so.

The arena where this pivotal re-alignment took place was the King Middle School auditorium in Berkeley, where far-left "progressive" journalist Chris Hedges formally debated iconoclastic "neocon" pundit Christopher Hitchens. The topic of the debate was "Is God...Great?", a riff on the title of Hitchens' new book, God Is Not Great.

Surprising as it might seem in a contemporary political landscape where mocking religion is an established liberal pastime, and where Christianity and spirituality are most often associated with conservatism, it was Hitchens -- now loathed by the left for not toeing the party line over the Iraq War -- who attacked religion, while the neo-Socialist, anti-patriotic, radical Hedges volunteered for the seemingly topsy-turvy position of having to defend spirituality and the existence of God.

How did this strange state of affairs come to pass? In one word: Islam.

I have to say that Hitchens does remain consistent in his anti-theist position. There is no flip-flopping with him. While I do disagree with his position on Christianity, I think his critique of radical Islam is correct.

Hitchens asserts:

It's [is the] exact equivalent of the evil nonsense taught by Hedges and friends of his, who say the suicide bombers in Palestine are driven to it by despair. Have you read the manifestos of these suicide bombers? Have you seen the videos they make? Have you seen the manifestos they put out? The propaganda that they generate? These are not people in despair. These are people in a state of religious exultation. Who are promised everything. Who are in a state of hope. Who are in a state of adoration for their evil mullahs.

[...]

It is to excuse the vicious, filthy forces of Islamic jihad to offer any other explanation but that it is their own evil preaching, their own vile religion, their own racism, their own apocalyptic ideology that makes them think they have the right to kill everyone in this room, and go to paradise as a reward. I won't listen, nor should you, to anyone who euphemizes or excuses this evil wicked thing.
...

Hitchens exposed Hedges covert support of radical Islam for which he had no reply. Hedges, who wrote a book against Christianity was actually there to prove God's existsence? He definitely lost the debate before it even started. What he really meant to prove was the existence of Allah and to justify jihad but Hitchens cooked his goose from the onset.