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Alister McGrath, a theologian who wrote the book The Twilight of Atheism, once again got his butt handed to him by the ever entertaining Christopher Hitchens. I wish someone less lazy than I am would transcribe Hitchens' opening speech, it's just that sacreliciously good. I wonder how McGrath continues to get invited to debate prominent atheists, he's just not in their league. He was ineffectual against Peter Atkins, evasive and coy against Richard Dawkins (more so in an earlier interview between the two), and now just plain boring against Hitchens. If there was any doubt that McGrath is out of his league, this last debate settles it.

UPDATE: Mad props to Sexy Secularist for his/her parody of McGrath's debate style! Imagine if poor Alister would employ his weasel ways in a restaurant, it's so Python-esque:

WAITER: And what might you be having this evening?

MCGRATH: Yes. Well, it’s important to distinguish between the various choices that a dinner menu offers. On the one hand, yes, there is a Chicken Cordon Bleu, and throughout the years it has been very satisfying to those who would choose to partake of it, as it is their right and wont to do so. I myself have been partial to such dishes, and I believe you would be too, were you to be one who enjoys partaking of such dishes as one is partial to.

But again, I caution that I mean to make no special claims to knowledge as to the superiority of one dish over the other, and so I must also be willing to consider, as St. Augustine frequently did, the Vegetable Korma, with its variable array of rich and exotic spices, the aromatic delights of different vegetable textures, not to mention its ethnic appeal, which is truly cross-cultural in its glory. To choose either would be a disservice, and again, it is not a question of which gastronomic delicacy is most satisfying to me, but rather, a reminder of the cause we have to celebrate, that this restaurant has chosen to offer to us so many choices, which I consider with delight and an open heart.

Read and enjoy his/her full post.