"Is Christianity Good for the World?" | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2007 > June (Web-only)

Christianity Today, June (Web-only), 2007 |

"Is Christianity Good for the World?"

The conclusion of the debate between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson.

posted 6/01/2007 03:01PM

5 of 5

Christ told His followers to tell everybody about this—about how the world is being moved from the old humanity to the new way of being human. Not only has the world been born again, so must we be born again. The Lord told us specifically to preach this Good News to every creature. He has established his great but welcoming household, and there is room enough for you. Nothing you have ever said or done will be held against you. Everything will be washed and forgiven. There is simple food—bread and wine—on the table. The door is open, and we'll leave the light on for you.

Related Elsewhere:

Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man," Letters To a Young Contrarian, and Why Orwell Matters; and Wilson's Letter from a Christian Citizen, Reforming Marriage, and A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking are available from Amazon.com and other retailers.

Wilson's Blog and Mablog has posts in response to God is Not Great, as well as other topics.

Hitchensweb.com has links to Hitchens' online articles.

Stan Guthrie commented in CT Liveblog about Christian-athiest debates.

Hitchens debated Al Sharpton on May 7.

Books & Culture articles about Hitchens and Wilson include:

Can You Reason with Christians? | A response to Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation. (May 7, 2007)

Christopher Hitchens Explains It All for You | Move over, Sam Harris; another atheist wants the pulpit. (Books & Culture, April 30, 2007)

Book of the Week: Strange Bedfellows | Christopher Hitchens and Christopher Caldwell collaborate on a collection of political writing. Has the millennium arrived unnoticed? (Books & Culture, January 27, 2003)

Uncompromising Positions | Hitchens and Orwell (Books & Culture, November 1, 2002)

Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf | "Wayfaring Stranger" (Books & Culture, November 17, 2006)

first page |

5 of 5

share this page

June (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment

Reader Reviews are below

Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.

If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.

Click here for international orders

2-for-1 Gifts!

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Displaying 1 - 3 of 64 comments.

See all comments

Mike	Posted: June 14, 2007 1:23 PM

A wonderful debate, thank you CT. Mythsmasher, your black and white, either-or challenge is both simplistic and terribly uninformed. Fundamentalist Chistianity is riddled with contradictions and does not reflect a much richer and more ancient theological tradition. The Scriptures were written over a long time by a faith community. Much is literal and non-negotiable, and much is historically conditioned and different in meaning for the original audience than for later generations. It is the wisdom of the Church guided by the Holy Spirit that discerns this over the centuries.

Anonymous

Posted: June 14, 2007 11:38 AM

Mr. Hitchens, I recently read your debate with Douglas Wilson on www.christianitytoday.com, and that means (as you would assume) I am an evangelical Christian myself, though only 18 years of age. In the article you did make many good points, but the overall question was if Christianity was good for the world, and in the final article you made a challenge, which was “Can you name one moral action, or moral utterance, performed or spoken by a believer that could not have been performed or spoken by an atheist?” I would very much like to take you up on this challenge. In the third paragraph of your response, you admitted that you have no idea what it is like to be a sociopath or a psychopath, but that you do not wish to coexist with them because it risks you and your family’s lives. So I will challenge you on that point. Wilson said he would reach out to them, and to be fair, you said the exact opposite. But, whose fault is it from an Atheists viewpoint that such a person has

Morality simply stated

Posted: June 14, 2007 10:53 AM

"Right" and "wrong" are really unhelpful and confusing words, which imply absolutism. "Morality" is simply the agreed preferred societal norms of a group of people. The prevailing norm is determined by the historical "winner" (like history itself). However, for a people and its norms to be a "winner," their norms must make for a more successful society. The norms are revised (evolve is a loaded term here) over time to correct "failures" in the society. Those strategies that build up society (via the success of the underlying communities & individuals) we tend to call "good" or "right." Those that damage the society in some way we call "bad" or "wrong." "Competing" societies are successful but have developed different strategies. Our society fought to preserve our approach in WWII; we are doing so again today with Islam. We can't be so arrogant to assume we will win b/c we're on the side of God's ultimate good; so also says the enemy. All such claims are always incorrect.

The allotted time for commenting has ended.