Tony Blair defends religious faith but says G-d had nothing to do with his decision to go to Iraq

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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and author Christopher Hitchens ahead of their debate on religion set up by Munk Debates in Toronto

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and author Christopher Hitchens ahead of their debate on religion set up by Munk Debates in Toronto
Mr Hitchens, 61, said: "Once you assume a creator and a plan, it makes us objects, in a cruel experiment, whereby we are created sick, and commanded to be well.
"And over us, to supervise this, is installed a celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea."
He said it was not necessary to have "divine permission to know right from wrong".
And he said religion may promise salvation but the price was the "surrender of your critical faculties".
He continued: "Religion forces nice people to do unkind things, and also makes intelligent people say stupid things."
In a question from the audience Mr Blair was asked what role faith played in his decision to invade Iraq.
He said: "I think we can nail this one pretty easily. It was not about religious faith.
"You know, one of the things that I sometimes say to people is, look, the thing about religion and religious faith is if you are a person of faith, it's part of your character, it defines you in many ways as a human being.
"It doesn't do the policy answers, I am afraid.
"Even on the major decisions that are to do with war and peace that I've taken, they were decisions based on policy, and so they should be, and you may disagree with those decisions, but they were taken because I genuinely believed them to be right."

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