Atheist Christopher Hitchens, author of the bestselling God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, showed once again on Thursday night, Oct. 11, that he takes no prisoners. At Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he debated Alister McGrath, Oxford professor of historical theology and author of Christianity’s Dangerous Idea.

Hitchens highlights: Christ’s atonement for sins was an immoral act, God is a sinister dictator, Christian repentance is masochistic, humans are little more than quasi-chimpanzees, and Christianity is similar to Marxism and Nazism.

McGrath politely attempted to counter Hitchens’ attacks on Christianity one by one, finally asserting that God is not a “celestial dictator” but a “celestial liberator.” McGrath’s generous eye contact and Oxford reserve, pitted against Hitchens’ well-rehearsed vitriol, did not induce a standing ovation from the Georgetown crowd, but he did raise thought-provoking questions, including: “In a world where reason and science do not deliver what we once thought they did, on what can we base our lives if we are to know what we are truly living for the good, the beautiful, and the true life?”

The King’s College, New York City, is sponsoring on Oct. 22 a debate between Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza, author of What’s So Right About Christianity.