Atheism Vs God – Cardinal to address Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney.
By Anthony Barich
SECULARISM is a minority sport and temporary phenomenon that only survives in the Western world by attacking Christianity or living off Christianity’s moral capital, Cardinal George Pell
will tell a major festival in Sydney on October 4.
The Cardinal will speak that day, responding to popular atheist, journalist and author, Christopher Hitchens, who will address the inaugural Festival of Dangerous Ideas the previous day on Religion poisons everything at the event that will be sponsored by the Sydney Morning Herald, Foxtel and SBS.
Tony Jones, ABC’s Nightline journalist and presenter of the national broadcaster’s weekly panel show Q and A, will host the address given by American-based Mr Hitchens in the Concert Hall of the Opera House on October 3, exploring the religious impulse, claiming that by believing in God, “people deceive themselves and attempt to deceive others.”
Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, the English-born Christopher Hitchens and outspoken feminist and academic, Germaine Greer, are among the keynote speakers at Australia’s inaugural Festival of Dangerous Ideas to be held at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4.
A statement from the Archdiocese of Sydney said that, speaking on Without God We Are Nothing, Cardinal Pell will draw on scientific figures including physicist Stephen Hawking who, despite his revolutionary model of the laws of physics and lifetime of research, admitted in A Brief History of Time that he was no closer to knowing whether God
existed or not, “only that God was arbitrary.”
This will go towards proving Pell’s point that “science alone cannot provide answers either to the existence of God or to atheist options.”
Borrowing from English philosopher and former atheist turned believer, Anthony Flew, he will pose the question: “how can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self replication capabilities and ‘coded chemistry?’”
An initiative of the St James Ethics Centre, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas will also feature Germaine Greer, politician turned academic Carmen Lawrence, Aboriginal activist Gary Foley, Oxford University’s award-wining neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield and Sydney Muslim and community spokesman Keysar Trad.
Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre, said many topics would trigger unease and anger but would help to define listeners and speakers alike and clarify what they stand for and what they do not.
The festival will include discussions on polygamy and Islam, a panel debate on Why Democracy is Not for Everyone and a claim by such well known and revered artists as Adelaide Festival Director Robyn Archer that Australian Stereotypes are Betraying out Cultural Identity.
Germaine Greer will address the Festival on October 3 on why she believes the concept of Freedom is the Most Dangerous Idea of All.
Baroness Susan Greenfield will speak on her belief that online networking may be rewiring our children’s brains and eliminating such human traits as empathy and compassion.
Sydney’s rapidly-growing Catholic youth movement has marshalled its forces to support Cardinal Pell as he puts the case forward for religion in the public forum at the Opera House.