"Is Christianity Good for the World?"

Christianity Today is hosting an exchange between atheist Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisoned Everything) and Reformed pastor and commentator Doug Wilson (Credenda/Agenda) on the question.

I consider Wilson 50% profound, 25% wrong but respectable, and 25% infuriating, but he is always trenchant. For example:

In your concluding paragraph you make a great deal out of your individualism and your right to be left alone with the "most intimate details of [your] life and mind." Given your atheism, what account are you able to give that would require us to respect the individual? How does this individualism of yours flow from the premises of atheism? Why should anyone in the outside world respect the details of your thought life any more than they respect the internal churnings of any other given chemical reaction? That's all our thoughts are, isn't that right? Or, if there is a distinction, could you show how the premises of your atheism might produce such a distinction?

This looks promising. Calvinism is not a squishy theology, and Wilson has about as hard an edge as any five-pointer I've read. Hitchens may have found a worthwhile opponent this time.

HT: Dr. Michael Sanera in The Locker Room