Toronto the Good: Debate: Morals of religion Tony Blair vs Christopher Hitchens

This evening in Toronto and me completely oblivious,  Tony Blair billed as a recent "convert to Catholicism" (as those his previous membership in the Anglican Church was not just as much Christian, and Christopher Hitchens, the renowned bombastic now shorn of his hair due to cancer treatments, debated in our town at the Roy Thompson Hall, downtown in the theatre district.

Christopher Hitchens 1-0 Tony Blair

Staunch atheist wins over audience in debate with Catholic convert over whether religion is a force for good in the world

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• Paul Harris in Toronto
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 27 November 2010 09.38 GMT
• Article history

Former British prime minister Tony Blair (left) and author Christopher Hitchens before their debate on religion. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters

In theory it was not an event that should have created a stir: a philosophical debate on the moral merits of religion. In an age of reality TV drama and Hollywood blockbusters loaded with special effects it would seem hard to get the masses to flock to witness such an old-fashioned, high brow spectacle.

But when the two debaters are the world's most famous recent Roman Catholic convert in the shape of Tony Blair and the charismatic yet cancer-stricken sceptic Christopher Hitchens suddenly it becomes easier to sell tickets.

Two thousand seven hundred tickets to be precise. For that was the size of the crowd that packed the space age-looking Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto late last night to watch the two ideological foes – when it comes to religion – spar and trade verbal blows.

The occasion was part of the Munk Debate series, organised by the Aurea Foundation group, and the motion was simply: "Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world".

Both men were unabashedly stalwart in their positions. Hitchens, one of the leading "new atheists" and author of the hit book God Is Not Great, slammed religion as nothing more than supernatural gobbledegook that caused untold misery throughout human history. "Once you assume a creator and a plan it make us subjects in a cruel experiment," Hitchens said before causing widespread laughter by comparing God to "a kind of divine North Korea".

Blair, perhaps not surprisingly, was a little less forthright. On the backfoot for much of the debate he kept returning to his theme that many religious people all over the world were engaged in great and good works. They did that because of their faith, he argued, and to slam all religious people as ignorant or evil was plain wrong. "The proposition that religion is unadulterated poison is unsustainable," he said. Blair called religion at its best "a benign progressive framework by which to live our lives".

Throughout the 90-minute debate Hitchens seemed to have the crowd's sympathy. That might have been to do with his ill appearance due to cancer, but was far more likely to be down to the sharpness of his verbal barbs and the fact that 57% of the audience already agreed with his sceptical position according to a pre-debate poll, while just 22% agreed with Blair's side. The rest were undecided.

But the true winner of the debate was most likely the organisers. The high-profile debaters and controversial subject matter ensured not only a packed hall but an overflow location where people who could not get tickets were able to watch it on TV monitors. Tickets sold out weeks ago and were selling on eBay for several times their cover price. The debate was also trailed on the front pages of some Canadian newspapers and covered by local television.

It even attracted a small but vocal knot of anti-Iraq war protestors accusing Blair of war crimes. Demonstrators unveiled placards that read "Arrest Blair" and "War criminals not welcome here", proving that, as with the merits of religion, some arguments are unlikely to ever be settled with a single night's debate.

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Sports: Toronto FC: Soccer fans in an uproar, coach is 'issed off

Toronto the Good's continent-level professional soccer team, Toronto Football Club (TFC, but that's not some new brand of Fried Chicken), is having its troubles again this year. James Christie, "Toronto FC responds to angry fans" (Oct22,2k10). Daniel Girard, "TFC moves to quell supporters' revolt" (Oct13,2l10)

TFC is a grand idea, but fan support for a still-new franchise requires some victorious season's to grow and maintain interest, draw in new fans, etc.

...[T]he chief operating officer of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is “pissed off” about the poor performance of Toronto FC this season, which will see the team miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year. He also admits the club “screwed up royally” with its season-ticket renewals.

And he vows to “get this fixed real quick” by re-jigging season ticket packages and hiring the right general manager to improve on-field results.

“We don’t feel good about the fact that we are where we are because the objective this year was the playoffs and we missed it,” Anselmi said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s bothering me.

“I feel a personal obligation to our fans to deliver and so far we haven’t.”

TFC, which has been a box-office sensation since it joined Major League Soccer as an expansion team in 2007, was officially eliminated from the playoff race last Saturday just prior to a 3-0 loss to Chivas USA.

With two games to go, the Reds (8-13-7) sit in 11th place among 16 teams.

The owners of TFC are Maple Leaf Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the chief executive officer of which is Tom Anselmi. He now wants to "reach out to fans with town hall-style meetings and scale back season ticket packages." The head coach and his top echelon colleagues have been dismissed.

-- Sportikos