http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-NduvegITQ&feature=related

The link above is the start of a 90 minute debate between Christian Dinesh D’Souza and Christopher Hitchens. Pretty cool from both angles, both of them give very good arguments and I doubt that anyone will walk away convinced or have their mind changed. But it gives fantastic incite into the major issues in the debate and will hopefully allow listeners to move past some issues (Like Crusades vs Communism).

Here are some random first responses from me:
1) Christopher is easily ‘cooler’ then Dinesh, the fact that they can debate like that on equal terms is encouraging as a Christian 😛 You’re much more likely to want to be on Christopher’s side but there is something in Dinesh’s arguments that are so cool. (This is in no means a ‘proof’ of God or anything just a point I liked)

2) I loved Dinesh’s point about masochism. That the concept of the cross is horrible from the outside (argued and seen from an atheistic view), but from the Christian perspective, one that starts with God himself sending his son (himself), the message of the cross becomes one of hope. I kind of think Hitechen’s is right, as Paul said,  the resurrection is so key to the christian faith that if you remove it, you don’t have a “nice” religion, but we’re to be pitied above all men. And I think Hitchen is showing clearly the results of a Christian faith minus christ. Church and religion for church and religion’s sake is genuinely horrible. But he kept coming back to that, Christianity is a man-made religion. If that were true then even the bible says God would hate it (as he hates other man made religious stuff even within Christian/Judaism).

3) I like Dinesh’s point about salvation. Its not that “salvation is a gift FROM God” but that “salvation is a gift OFF God”. Thats awesome. That salvation is whats key. Its not that we will be thrown into hell, but that we don’t accept God who, himself, is our salvation.

4) I like the fact that the main miracle Dinesh defends is the resurrection. It seems like this really is as key as a point that the “2 ways to live” crowd of evangelicals have forced into our brains! 😛