Two topics of discussion that are generally ruled out of discussion in polite company are politics and religion because they potentially stir such strong feelings, but former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will play the defender of faith next month at a debate in Toronto.
Opposing him will be journalist and author Christopher Hitchens, a famed atheist who recently developed cancer of the esophagus.
The debate will take place at the sixth semi-annual Munk Debate at Roy Thomson Hal on November 26, and organizers says the topic is not whether God exists, but whether religion is a force for peace or conflict in the world.
Blair will argue for the benefits of religion. Hitchens is the author of a number of books, including ‘God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.’
When Blair was in office he was famously warned off making too much of his developing faith by spin doctor Alistair Campbell, but in the months after his resignation from politics, Blair converted to Catholicism.
Blair is the creator of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which according to its website “aims to promote respect and understanding about the world's major religions and show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world.”