There's the mystery
Whatever you think of essayist
Christopher Hitchens, you have to admire his willingness to have a debate about
God with just about anybody. Since he wrote God
is Not Great: Religion Poisons Everything, he's taken on theologians,
rabbis and Fox News pundits. Last month in Toronto, in the midst of his current
treatment for cancer, Hitchens debated
Tony Blair. Hitchens has even publicly debated
his own brother, an Anglican priest believer.
The documentary Collision
follows Hitchens on the road as he holds a series of debates with evangelical theologian
Douglas Wilson. Hitchens comes off as a genial fellow (so does Wilson) carrying
on the great British tradition of debate: you fiercely try to demolish your opponent
and then go out for drinks together afterwards.
Nothing, however, seems
to dislodge from Hitchens's mind the notion that God is a despot in the sky and
that religion offers empty or dangerous fairy-tale explanations. Debaters'
efforts to expand Hitchens's view of who God might be or what religion does
gain no traction.
