Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens to debate religion
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair is to take on columnist Christopher Hitchens in a televised public debate for and against religion.
Mr Blair, a Catholic convert, will argue that faith is a force for good.
Mr Hitchens, terminally ill with cancer, is expected to argue it is the world's "main source of hatred", as he did in his 2007 book God is not Great.
A 23-country poll paid for by the debate's Canadian organisers suggests the world is evenly split on the issue.
Some 48% of the 18,192 people questioned by Ipsos took the view that "religion provides the common values and ethical foundations that diverse societies need to the thrive in the 21st Century".
Fractionally more - 52% - supported the view that "religious beliefs promote intolerance, exacerbate ethnic divisions, and impede social progress in developing and developed nations alike".
Continue reading the main story Blair v Hitchens on the BBC BBC World Service radio will air the Blair-Hitchens debate on 4 December, followed by Radio 4 on 11 December
It can be viewed on BBC World News and the News Channel on 1 January 2011
Rich countries were less likely to see religion as a force for good than poor countries - the main exception being the United States, where 65% said it had a positive impact.
Ahead of the debate, which will take place in front of a sell-out audience of 2,700 people in Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall, Tony Blair said: "The good that people of faith all over the world do every day, motivated by their religion, cannot be underestimated and should never be ignored."
Continue reading the main story Tony Blair Fifty-seven-year-old former Labour prime minister
Brought up in a Christian family, he says he became a practising Christian while studying at Oxford University
Converted to Catholicism in 2007
Launched Tony Blair Faith Foundation in 2008
It could, and should, be a force for progress, he said.
Christopher Hitchens - who has described Christianity, Judaism and Islam as the "real axis of evil" - has continued his outspoken attacks on religion in interviews as he is treated for cancer of the oesophagus.
He is scathing about those who suggest his illness might lead him to retract his atheism.
In a BBC Newsnight interview to be broadcast on 29 November, he says he is not afraid of death, but regrets the fact that it will cause distress to friends and family.
In comments released by the debate's organisers he said it was "bizarre" that Mr Blair, a Catholic since 2007, had converted "at one of the most conservative times for the Catholic Church, under one of the most conservative popes".
Continue reading the main story Christopher Hitchens Sixty-one-year-old journalist, author and critic
Went to Christian boarding schools but refused to take part in communal prayers
Says his "bohemian and rackety" lifestyle may have caused his cancer of the oesophagus
Regarded as a leader of the "New Atheism"
Both men have recently published autobiographies.
Tickets for the debate - the sixth in a semi-annual series of Munk Debates - sold out within hours of going on sale.
The event will also be available to watch online, on a pay-per-view basis, on the Munk Debates website.
The Ipsos poll, conducted in September, found that Europe was the region most doubtful about the benefits of religion, with just 19% in Sweden agreeing that it was a force for good.
At the other end of the scale, in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, it was seen as a positive force by more than 90% of those questioned.
Within North America there was a pronounced divide. In Canada only 36% agreed with the positive view of religion whereas 64% saw it as a negative force - figures almost exactly the reverse of those in the US.
Photo of Blair and Hitchens at the debate.
Last Friday, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair debated the role of religion with atheist author and journalist Christopher Hitchens at the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Canada. Organised under the auspices of the 'Munk Debates', the motion was: "That religion is a force for good in the world".

Hitchens argued that religion is "a cruel experiment whereby we are created sick and ordered to be well" and that the omnipresent, omniscient God supposed by many world religions was "a celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea".

Blair — who in 2008 established the  — conceded whilst religion is not necessary for everybody to act morally, it was still helpful for many despite violent interpretations of texts by extremists. He said the world religions unite in a moral mission to, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", describing "a spiritual presence, bigger, more important, more meaningful than just us alone, that has its own power separate from our power, and that even as the world's marvels multiply, makes us kneel in humility not swagger in pride."

Continuing, Blair stated: "If faith is seen in this way, science and religion are not incompatible, destined to fight each other, until eventually the cool reason of science extinguishes the fanatical flames of religion."

Hitchens listed numerous aspects of religion he thought were negative, arguing "is it good for the world to appeal to our credulity and not to our scepticism? Is it good for the world to worship a deity that takes sides in wars and human affairs? To appeal to our fear and to our guilt, is it good for the world? To our terror, our terror of death, is it good to appeal?"

Pressing his points, Hitchens asserted: "To preach guilt and shame about the sexual act and the sexual relationship, is this good for the world? And asking yourself all the while, are these really religious responsibilities, as I maintain they are? To terrify children with the image of hell and eternal punishment, not just of themselves, but their parents and those they love. Perhaps worst of all, to consider women an inferior creation, is that good for the world, and can you name me a religion that has not done that?"

Blair responded, "I don't think we should think that because you can point to examples of prejudice in the name of religion, that bigotry and prejudice and wrongdoing are wholly owned subsidiaries of religion."

Before the debate, the audience opposed the motion 57% to 22% (21% undecided). Post-debate, the motion was opposed by 68% of the audience and supported by 23%.