Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry absolutely scathingly slammed the sins of the Church at the Intelligence?Ǭ? talks. See resources below.

Here’s a good discussion thread about the talk.

And here’s the whole conference, via Richard Dawkins.

(Previously on Dangerous Minds: Canonizing Sinead O’Connor, Catholic Church Covered up Child Sexual Abuse for 30 Years.)

Fry at least kept his presentation primarily focussed on sexuality.

Hitchens’ presentation was sort of a random grab-bag of crimes and atrocities both recent and ancient.  A similar dossier could be assembled on the United Kingdom, or England in particular.

And while I have written a great deal on Catholic antisemitism, I find it just a little self-serving when an Englishman talks about the Vatican’s contribution to that strain of hatred at a time when anti-Semitic crime in Britain has spiked and Jew-baiting occurs more frequently in the rhetoric of British journalists, politicians, and academics.

In short, nothing I haven’t heard before and not particularly well-organized.  But then again, Hitchens and Fry are more celebrities than scholars.

Although I do wholeheartedly agree with Fry and Hitchens’ points, Its sad that I’m not able to find the other side of this debate anywhere. Not much of a debate eh?