This should be fun
Pell vs. Hitchens, way beyond the Thunderdome. (Or is it the Areopagus?) Zenit has it:
The first ever Festival of Dangerous Ideas will pit Sydney’s archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, against one of the most prominent exponents of modern atheism, British journalist Christopher Hitchens.
A press release from the Sydney Archdiocese announced today that this festival will take place Oct. 3-4 in the Sydney Opera House.
In his address, titled “Without God We Are Nothing,” Cardinal Pell plans to speak about secularism as a “minority sport and a temporary phenomenon” that only survives “by attacking Christianity or living off Christianity’s moral capital.”
I’m sure Hitch will be fine with that. If not quite “Commonweal Conversations,” the event will likely be worth the price of admission.
I understand why Hitchens would do this, but Pell? On second thought… Well, as you say, not exactly Commonweal Conversations, it should be, um – interesting.
Are there going to be impartial judges–or members of the audience selected at random–voting on who makes the better case? How would you bet? Will it be Hitchens expelled or Pell driven pall-mall from his cathedra?
Since nothing is the absence of something, I wonder how Mr.Hitchens will explain the fact that in order for there to be something, something must transcend the material universe, since we know that something had to create the Laws of Nature to begin with.
God created the World out of His Wisdom and Love, (CCC) which is why, without God, we would be nothing.
I doubt it will have the quality of the exchange of letters in Corriere della Sera between the atheist Umberto Eco and the former Cardinal Martini of Milan. We can at least hope that Australia is better than the US for having a public discussion of religion.
Looks to me like it’s going to be two expert name-callers throwing insults at each other. Who thought up this gladiatorial contest?
Unfortunately for those who were anticipating the event, the speakers are not to share a stage. Indeed, Hitchens is opening the Festival at $65 per ticket and Pell is speaking for a mere $20 ticket price the following afternoon. The only other religious speaker in the line up is a Muslim, Keysar Trad, who is to advocate the virtues of polygamy for Australian society. So, Fran Rossi Szpylczyn might well ask, why is Archbishop Pell speaking? And also, what is the Festival on about? It would be a truly dangerous and unsettling thing to program people who are not popular bogeymen and who are not so adept at confirming people in their prejudices. It is more like a Festival of ‘Dangerously Conventional’ Ideas. Nice to see Commonweal taking an interest in Australia: it has been truly extraordinary to note in the blog our apparent inclusion by some US bishops in the category of countries that might ‘envy’ United States health care.
Margaret Coffey–Thanks for the first-hand info…And I couldn’t be more disappointed! What a sham. I do like your take on the festival. And I wonder why Cardinal Pell is taking part–unless perhaps he has a book in the offing?!