Is Christianity Good for the World?

Just wanted to point you all to a wonderfully pointed debate between two very intelligent people on the above question, one of them debating from a Christian perspective (Douglas Wilson), the other from an atheist perspective (Christopher Hitchens).

Some really great stuff in there. Props to Hitchens for allowing the debate to be hosted on Christianity Today of all places. :-)

From Hitchens:

If hymns and psalms were sung to sanctify slavery—just to take a recent example—and then sung by abolitionists, then surely the non-fanatical explanation is that morality requires no supernatural sanction? Every Christian church has had to make some apology for its role in the Crusades, slavery, anti-Semitism, and much else. I do not think that such humility discredits faith as such, because I tend to think that faith is a problem to begin with, but I do think that humility will lead to the necessary conclusion that religion is man-made.

From Wilson:

Now allow me the privilege of pointing out the structure of your argument here. If a professor takes credit for the student who mastered the material, aced his finals, and went on to a career that was a benefit to himself and the university he graduated from, the professor must (fairness dictates) be upbraided for the dope-smoking slacker that he kicked out of class in the second week. They were both formally enrolled, is that not correct? They were both students, were they not?

Find the debate here.