Dubbed the voice of atheism, Christopher Hitchens recently won  a debate against former Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Munk Debate series held in Toronto, Canada.

The motion for the debate, which was organized by the Aurea Foundation group for the Munk series, was “Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world,” according to The Guardian.

Even before the debate began the 2,700 audience leaned heavily on Hitchens’ side, with 57 percent in disagreement with the motion compared to only 22 percent on Blair’s side, agreeing with the motion. The remaining 31 percent were undecided, Christianity Today said.

By the end of the debate both speakers won over some of the undecided, with Hitchens’ final score at 68 percent, and Blair scoring 32 percent, according to Christianity Today.

However, the Guardian said the real winner was the debate organizers, with the Roy Thomson Hall filled to capacity and an overflow crowd at a separate location where the debate was watched on TV monitors.

The Guardian said weeks before the debate, tickets had already been sold out and some were on eBay “several times their cover price.” It will air on the BBC World Service radio on Dec. 4, and on Radio 4 on Dec. 11. It can also be viewed on BBC World News and the News Channel on Jan. 1, 2011, BBC News said.

Spiritual gobbledygook

Hitchens, who wrote the bestseller God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, called religion “spiritual gobbledygook” and cited the misery that religion caused through the ages, including the exacerbation of many world conflicts, Christianity Today reported.

The atheist, who is afflicted with esophageal cancer, said, “Once you assume a creator and a plan it makes us subjects in a cruel experiment.” He compared God to a “celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea,” Christianity Today said.

He said, “To terrify children with the image of hell…to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?” Christianity Today reported.

Convert to Catholicism

Blair, who converted to Catholicism in 2007, said that while it is true that “people commit horrific acts of evil in the name of religion,” it is also undeniable that religion has been the inspiration for much extraordinary good, the UKPA reported.

Of his decisions on war as prime minister, Blair said it was “not about religious faith,” but “based on policy,” according to the UKPA. Blair said one should not render blanket judgment on all people of faith due to the “bigotry or prejudice shown by some.”

Blair cited the good acts of faith-based groups such as saving millions of lives in Africa, and caring for those who are disabled, mentally ill and destitute noting, “The proposition that religion is unadulterated poison is unsustainable. It can be destructive, [but] it can also create a deep well of compassion, and frequently does.”

The UKPA also quoted Blair suggesting that rather than try to “drive religion out,” efforts are better spent getting people from different faiths to work together, especially in the Middle East.

Northern Ireland’s culture minister Nelson McCausland wrote recently to the trustees of the National Museums Northern Ireland, urging them add alternative views on the origin of the universe.

In an interview McCausland said, “There are a range of perspectives and I want simply to have in there consideration given to reflecting the diversity of views in Northern Ireland.

“It’s also in fact a human rights issue and an equality issue because culture rights, the rights of people in Northern Ireland, should be implemented.”

McCausland also asked museums to give more prominence to Ulster-Scots and the Orange Order, the BBC reported.

While his letter did not specifically mention creationism, it does open the door to the option of a creationism exhibit.  McCausland’s party colleague and North Antrim assembly member Mervyn Storey has actively campaigned to urge museums in Northern Ireland to add exhibits on creationism, according to The Guardian.

God gives the divine spark to Adam. Northern Ireland's culture minister urges national museums to include alternative views on universe's origins

McCausland noted that around one third of Northern Ireland’s population believed in creationism and intelligent design.

He said, “I have had more letters from the public on this issue than any other issue,” according to The Guardian.

In his letter, McCausland said he had “a common desire to ensure that museums are reflective of the views, beliefs and cultural traditions that make up society in Northern Ireland,” The Guardian reported.

McCausland’s letter has prompted strong opposition from some members of the media, the academe, and the government spheres.

Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist said “Scientific evidence can’t be democratically decided,” according to The Guardian.

Social Democrat and Labor Party spokesman Thomas Burns said it was “a mark of a liberal society that its cultural institutions should be free of party-political interference,” the BBC said.

Storey, who has chaired the Northern Ireland assembly’s education committee, has denied that man descended from apes, according to The Guardian.  He believes in creationism and intelligent design.

Charges were dropped recently against a Christian preacher in Cumbria, England who was arrested after he told a police officer that homosexuality was a sin, according to the BBC News.

Dale Mcalpine, 42, was charged with breaching section 5 of the Public Order Act by allegedly using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, the BBC said.

The arrest occurred while Mcalpine was preaching to shoppers in Workington, Cumbria on April 20.  He was approached by a public community support officer (PCSO), who told him he was a liaison officer for the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, the BBC reported.

“He told me he was homosexual, [so] I said ‘the Bible says homosexuality is a sin’. He said ‘I’m offended by that and I’m also the LGBT liaison officer within the police.’  I said ‘it is still a sin’,” according to BBC News.

Three uniformed police officers then appeared.  Mcalpine said, “Then they said it is against the law to say homosexuality is a sin.  I was arrested.  It’s crazy isn’t it?”  Although he was scheduled for trial this year, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has now confirmed they will not be prosecuting, the BBC reported.

Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell condemned the arrest, calling it “heavy handed” and “a step too far.”  He urged the home secretary to issue new guidelines to the police, according to EDGE.

Tatchell said, “Although I disagree with Dale McAlpine and support protests against his homophobic views, he should not have been arrested and charged,” said Tatchell. “Criminalization is a step too far. Despite my opposition to his opinions, I defend his right to freedom of expression,” EDGE reported.

Tatchell went on, “I am surprised and shocked that the CPS allowed the case to proceed at all. The Public Order Act is meant to protect people from harm. The police should concentrate on tackling serious, harmful crimes, such as racist, homophobic and sexist violence,” according to EDGE.

Of the dropped charges, Mcalpine said, “This is a victory for freedom of speech.  I hope we are not going down the road towards a police state and the thought police.” Added Mcalpine, “I can’t wait to get out on to the streets again and preach the word of God,” according to EDGE.

Two Christian girls, aged 3 and 5 years old, were rescued recently after being held hostage in Yemen for 11 months, according to Compass Direct News .

The girls, Lydia hentschel, 3, and Anna, 5, were rescued through a collaboration of Saudi Arabian and Yemeni security forces in what was described as a “humanitarian gesture” the BBC reported.

They were kidnapped with their parents and two-year-old brother while on a picnic in the northern region of Saada in June last year, according to the BBC.

Also kidnapped were four other Christian foreigners.  Three of the adult hostages, a Korean and two German women, were murdered shortly afterwards, the BBC reported.

The foreigners worked in a hospital near Saada city.  No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, and it is not known if they were kidnapped because of their faith, according to CDN.

The parents, Johannes Hentschel,  a mechanical engineer and Arab speaker, and Sabine, a nurse, sold their belongings seven years before and left their home in Lauske, Saxony for Yemen as part of a long-held dream, according to guardian.co.uk.

According to the Guardian, they worked at the Protestant al-Jumhuri state hospital in Yemen, employed by Worldwide Services, a Netherlands Christian charity.

They had planned to return to Germany this year for Anna to start school.

According to CDN, at present it is unknown where the girls’ parents and 2-year-old brother Simon are; as well as the Briton, only known as Anthony.  The Briton works as an engineer.  According to a report by the news magazine Spiegel, the Hentschels’s kidnappers had demanded $2m ransom for their release. The German foreign ministry refused to comment, according to the Guardian.

Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest country and is struggling with a secessionist movement in the south, an on-off revolt in the north, and intensified al-Qaida militancy, according to the Guardian.

Over 200 foreign nationals have been kidnapped in the country in the last 15 years. Most have been released unharmed, the Guardian reported.

Violence has erupted anew in troubled Plateau State, Nigeria with the brutal murder of two Christian journalists who were stabbed to death by a mob while they were on their way to interview a politician.

Nathan Sheleph Dabak, deputy editor of The Light Bearer, and reporter Sunday Gyang Bwede   were about on their way to interview the Hon. Bulus Kaze of the Jos East constituency when an angry mob accosted the media men and stabbed them to death on April 24.

The bodies of the victims, who were working for a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) publication, were found in the Jos University Teaching Hospital mortuary the following day.

Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, borders Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and Christian south.  Sectarian violence has been rife in the area since 2001 totaling some 2000 people who up to now have been killed in collective violence incidents, according to BBC News.

According to the BBC such incidents, though involving clashes between Muslims and Christians, have underlying political and economic issues.  The report notes that Muslims in the area tend to be nomads, while Christians are farmers, however both groups share Jos.

The BBC primarily blames greedy politicians who benefit from stirring religious hatred to drive away supporters of rival candidates.  National elections are slated to be held in Nigeria next year.

Tensions in Jos remain high.  The deaths of Dabak and Bwede only became known when a friend phoned the former.   A stranger answered saying, “We have killed all of them; you can do your worst,” according to Persecution.org.

Other recent acts of violence include the shooting death of journalist Edo Sule Ugbagwu of the Nation within days of this incident in his home near Lagos.  Also in January 18, some 200 Muslims attacked Christans in St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Nassarawa Gwong, Jos.

Rev. Dr. Pandat Yamsat, president of COCIN, asked churchgoers to “cry out to God and allow Him to take vengeance.”  Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) asked local government officials to arrest the perpetrators even as he appealed for peace, according to the Christian Telegraph.

The question about the existence of intelligent life on other planets will rise to the fore once again with the release next month of a new Discovery Channel documentary, Stephen Hawking’s Universe.

In the documentary, the British physicist will give his views on intelligent life in other planets.

Reports say he believes they exist, but warns against making contact with them, according to BBC News.

Space alien. Credit: martin_m2/sxc.hu

Hawking notes that aliens might simply raid the Earth for its resources, then move on.

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” Hawking tells BBC News.

Hawkings, in the BBC interview said, “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

The program envisages numerous alien species including two-legged herbivores and yellow, lizard-like predators, but Hawking conceded that most life elsewhere in the universe is likely to consist of simple microbes.

Professor Brian Cox, a physicist from the University of Manchester, said in a recently released BBC series Wonders of the Solar System, that organisms could be present under the ice sheet that envelops Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Professor Cox added, “Closer to home, the evidence that life could exist on Mars is growing.  We will only know for sure when the next generation of spacecraft, fine-tuned to search for life, are launched to the moons of Jupiter and the arid plains of Mars in the coming decades,” he told the BBC.

Some Christians agree with part of Hawking’s statement–that visitors from another world could be dangerous–but they do not agree with Hawking about what the creatures actually are.

In response to Erich Von Daniken’s bestseller, Chariots of the Gods, Dr. Clifford Wilson, researched UFOs and the Bible and penned his own bestseller and rebuttal, Crash Go the Chariots.

In the end, Wilson allows for the possibility of some malevolent beings of supernatural origin, but he does not believe they are intelligent life forms from other planets. In fact, Wilson, after his research, concluded he did not believe that life exists on other planets.

The point is further elucidated by Ken Ham who looks to the Bible to explain his viewpoint. In a recent Blog posting, Ham says:

“From an evolutionary perspective, it would make sense to suggest [that intelligent alien life exists]. People who believe this possibility contend that, if life evolved on earth by natural processes, intelligent life must exist somewhere else in the far reaches of space, given the size of the universe and the millions of possible planets…but I believe a Christian worldview, built on the Bible, rejects such a possibility,” he said.

Ham says he  rejects the possibility of rational alien life because, according to the Bible, the Fall of Man and subsequent sin affected all of creation and the only solution to mankind’s sin problem was Jesus Christ.

“Jesus didn’t become a ‘God-Klingon,’ a ‘God-Vulcan,’ or a ‘God-Cardassian’—He became the God-man. It wouldn’t make sense theologically for there to be other intelligent, physical beings who suffer because of Adam’s sin but cannot be saved,” he said.

“Now, regarding animal life and plants, we cannot be so dogmatic because the Bible does not state whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. Based on the passages about the heavens and earth, however, I strongly suspect that life does not exist elsewhere.”