Christopher Hitchens Slams Catholic Church for History of Sins
Submitted by DeepDiveAdmin on Dec 1, 2009
In this video, writer and avowed atheist Christopher Hitchens engages in an October 2009 debate over whether or not "the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world." Hitchens says 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."
Hitchens says the Church has admitted crimes that include: the Crusades; the Spanish
inquisition; the persecution of Jews, injustice towards woman, and the forced conversion of peoples to
Catholicism, especially in South America. Part I is followed by Part II.
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Every culture and every people have something to be sorry for.....everyone has made mistakes.....usually we apologize and move forward. Why is the Catholic church any different? If Hitchens is a true athetist then why is it only the Catholic church that he takes on?
Motion: The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world.
Pre- debate:
For: 34%
Against: 52.5%
Undecided: 1.5%
Post-debate
For: 13.6%
Against: 84.8%
Undecided: 1.6%
Since this is opposing views, here are a couple from that very same debate:
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.
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.