Atheist vs Christian

One of the most recent debates between atheist Christopher Hitchens was with the former PM of Britain, Tony Blair. Mr. Blair has been vocal in his profound Christian faith, even going so far as to declaring himself a Christian while he was in Office. The debate with Mr. Hitchens was not about Christianity but about the efficacy of religion to be a source of good in the world.

 Mr Hitchens is a vocal proponent of the evolution/atheistic worldview and Mr Blair is a politician, not a Christian/religion apologist. The debate was not about Christianity but about the value of religion in society. This is the basic problem with some of these debates, it seems crafted in a way to confuse the issues by having debaters that are not qualified to debate the question. Neither of them are especially qualified in this area of expertise.

The debate was set up to fail but it seems from the results that Mr. Blair lost the debate because he was not sufficiently infromed about the efficacy of religion to the well being of society in general and the negative consequences of atheism. The case in point was when Mr Hitchens discussed the history of oppression done by the Catholic church through the Crusades, the witch trials, the various trials, persecutions and scourgings of apostates and the religious wars of the middle ages. Mr Blair countered with many examples of atheist regimes that were justifying murder as tool to promote their governemental systems like the communist and facist governments of Germany, Russian and China.

The results of the debate, according to the co-ordinators, was, people were not convinced of Mr. Blair's point of view and felt that religion had a negative effect on society. This did not help anyone to convert to Christianity and did not promote the Christian world view. My thought is this, is it valuable to debate or argue with people that are totally against Christianity or religion in general? Should we bring these ideas to the marketplace if we are not totally prepared with cogent arguments for Christianity. Just saying the "The Bible says" is not going to dissuade or inform or change anyone's mind, if they don't believe the bible is God's word anyway.

What's the answer then? Should we debate? Should we argue? Should we become more knowledgeable of their tactics/arguements/facts? The bible says we should know what we believe and be ready to give an answer to those who ask. So I think it is a good thing to be prepared but to be aware of the devil's tactics. He can seem so reasonable and even friendly, but it is still the enemy in disguise. When you read C.S. Lewis and the "Screwtape Letters," you see the development and disguise the enemy uses to try and weaken our faith.

I am still going to watch these things but I'm not sure they are good or useful for everyone because they do have some valid points and arguments to defend their points. I'm going to be careful of what I watch and as the scripture says, "Be as cunning as a serpent and harmless as a dove." The argument might be that to be aware I need to subject myself to their arguments. I think listening to what is good and pure and lovely and of good report is good advice to any Christian, knowing that exposing young or immature Christians to some of these debates, may not be a good idea until they are established by their faith.