Ba's post about Christopher Hitchen's new book God is Not Great reminded me of the Blasphemy Debate at the Hay on Wye Festival 2005. Chaired by Joan Bakewell and inspired by the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill, which had been announced in the Queen's Speech the previous month.
Click for MP3 (78mins)
It's called a debate but to be more accurate it's a discussion. Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens cover issues of freedom of speech, religious tolerance, multiculturalism and orthodoxy. Fascinating, though-provoking and as you'd expect from two such consummate orators extremely entertaining.
Listening to two secular thinkers discussing blasphemy and issues of religion may be preaching to the choir somewhat, but it's lovely to hear my thoughts on a subject being expressed so much better than I could manage. If you can't manage to listen to it let me leave you with Stephen Fry's rather more economical assessment from an episode of QI
"Religion, I shit it."
Showing posts with label queers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label queers. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
top 5 links i've been saving up for my fellow atheists
1) This depresses the hell out of me. I was raised in the Episcopal church. At the age of 12, when I was set to start my confirmation classes, I came to the conclusion that not only did I not agree with all or even most of the tenets of the faith, but I just flat-out didn't believe in god. So that was it for me and church. Nevertheless, I have a fondness, still, for the Anglican church and its rituals and was thrilled when Gene Robinson was named bishop of New Hampshire (live free or die, baby!). I hate to see this divide in the church, and will be interested to see how it all plays itself out.
2) This article cheers me a bit, however. I was horrified (though not surprised) that Huckabee, Tancredo, and Brownback (honestly, I can't even type his name without giggling) said during the GOP debate that they didn't believe in evolution, but was delighted to see the split being exposed in the Republican party between the crazy, religious, anti-science nutjobs and the white guys who just really, really love money.
3) Mitt Romney says Battlefield Earth is his favorite book. Umm...okay. I really don't think there's anything I can say about this that Jon Swift didn't already say more hilariously than I possibly could.
4) But in that same post, he also linked to this site, which has permanently changed the way I think about Mormons. I mean, seriously, your church dictates what kind of underpants you wear? WTF?
5) Finally, this is just unspeakably hilarious, and I insist that you go watch the debate here right now. (Thanks to Slappy for bringing this to my attention.)
2) This article cheers me a bit, however. I was horrified (though not surprised) that Huckabee, Tancredo, and Brownback (honestly, I can't even type his name without giggling) said during the GOP debate that they didn't believe in evolution, but was delighted to see the split being exposed in the Republican party between the crazy, religious, anti-science nutjobs and the white guys who just really, really love money.
3) Mitt Romney says Battlefield Earth is his favorite book. Umm...okay. I really don't think there's anything I can say about this that Jon Swift didn't already say more hilariously than I possibly could.
4) But in that same post, he also linked to this site, which has permanently changed the way I think about Mormons. I mean, seriously, your church dictates what kind of underpants you wear? WTF?
5) Finally, this is just unspeakably hilarious, and I insist that you go watch the debate here right now. (Thanks to Slappy for bringing this to my attention.)
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