Required Listening - Hitchens and Wilson

Christopher HitchensThis is a worth-your-time debate on the existence of the Christian God between Douglas Wilson and atheist Christopher Hitchens.

It is about 100 minutes in length and about a 40MB download. 

Here's the LINK

***WARNING*** Hitchens mutters the occassional expletive and during a Q&A session one member of the audience quotes Hitchens' work which uses some foul language.

Here are a few reasons why I encourage Christians to regularly listen to debates like this (at least a few times a year): 

1. Because all Christians are commanded to give an answer with meekness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). You need to know the questions and objections so that you can answer them. We are living in a post-Christian age...and we will be witnessing to atheists more and more. There is simply no reason to be fearful of them and their arguments unless you have not equipped yourself. One reason I listen to debates like this is to help sharpen my evangelism.

2. It demonstrates the primacy of one's worldview. Hitchens is an atheist...and he interprets everything through that filter. Wilson is a believer in the triune God...and he interprets everything through that filter. Hitchens begins with reason (or what he perceives as reason). Wilson begins with the Bible. (There is a fascinating discussion of reason and logic between the two debaters near the end. Notice the tangled web Hitchens gets himself caught in. The bottom line is at some point we all hit bedrock.)  ***NOTE*** I appreciate the fact that Wilson states that one cannot reason themselves to God. Wilson is a solid presuppositionalist and he understands that unless God is gracious to open up one's eyes through the truth, no amount of evidence, data, facts will convince the unbeliever to become a believer. There needs to be a fundamental/presuppositional/bedrock change in thinking. Hitchens has man at the center of his universe, in particular himself, and therefore needs to repent. And he won't repent unless God grants him repentance.

3. It should cause you to grieve over the lostness and blindness of the atheist and pray for God's grace to open eyes.

4. Most of us live in a comfortable Christian subculture away from the bothersome challenge that the atheistic worldview brings our way. Stop it. God didn't call you to live a comfortable life. It shoud stir up a righteous passion in you to confront the culture because you hold, in your jar of clay, life saving and life changing truth by the grace of God. And we know how God has used this truth in our lives so it stands to reason based on His nature and promises that he'll do it for others too.

5. Realize that we can engage non-biblical viewpoints with humility, while still weilding the sharp edge of the truth with authority. 

I also found this LINK to what is probably my favorite Christian-V-Atheist type debate ever.

I hope that you will benefit from these solid resources. 

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