Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago

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Peter Hitchens opens by stating that he hates this argument. He says that the opposition reminds him of his adolescent self, the worst person he ever knew. This debate is not serious, it's a matter of opinion and thereby a matter of choice. The question, he says, that should be discussed is why we choose what we choose?

[Original from Oxford Union: Peter Hitchens - God DOES Exist: youtube.com/watch?v=VnIH4gomOqc ]

Quotes Thomas Nagel, in his opinion the most intelligent atheist living today, "why is it that me and my fellow atheists want so much for they're not to be a god?"

Based on the knowledge we have, we construct a belief that helps us to discover what we ought to do and how we ought to live and if our actions have significance beyond what we immediately do.
He says that the atheists know that if everyone didn't believe in God there would be a lawless society in which we cannot trust people not to lie, cheat, steal or rape. Without the advantages of Christianity we would lose all faith in people doing the right thing.
Filmed on Thursday 8th November 2012

My commentary:
It is hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.”
― Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design


That is the position of the naturalist who believes there is nothing beyond what our senses can test.

Yet, Internally we scream for justice! When we see someone wronged, especially if they are poor, old, sick, or very young our hearts scream about the injustice, that something must be done.

Question: If we are a biological machine with actions predetermined then why would we have a passion for justice?

And if it's just an illusion, why do anything about it? If it's just biological machines bumping into and breaking each other... then from whence commeth human value?

Of course, we see human value. At our core, even the most die-hard atheist believes in human worth and the value of human life – even if it's just the humans who agree with them.

While they didn't bring me to faith, I fully believe that our inner passion for justice and our inner longing for love – these represent something to me much greater than purposeless biological machinery operating within a mass domino effect. Instead, they represent the very image of God.

Imago Dei.