Tony Blair told an audience member at a debate yesterday that his religious beliefs did not play a role in his decision to support the US invasion of Iraq - but the votes went 2-1 the way of his opponent, Christopher Hitchens. 
 
 The former prime minister said it was true that "people commit horrific acts of evil in the name of religion". But Mr Blair, who converted to Catholicism in 2007, said it was also true that religion inspires acts of extraordinary good. 
 
 And he said it was important not to condemn all people of religious faith because of the "bigotry or prejudice shown by some". 
 
 Mr Blair also told the 2,700-strong audience in Toronto, Canada, the invasion of Iraq was "not about religious faith" but decisions on the war were "based on policy". 
 
 He said it was "futile" to try to "drive religion out" and it was more important to concentrate on how to get people of different faiths to work together, particularly in the Middle East where the conflict would only be resolved if people worked across the "faith divide". 
 
 Sceptic Mr Hitchens, who has terminal cancer, likened God to a "celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea". 
 
 He appeared to win over the audience, which voted two-to-one in his favour following the debate, which argued the motion "be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world". 
 
 Mr Blair, 57, who became a practising Christian while studying at Oxford University, said: "It is undoubtedly true that people commit horrific acts of evil in the name of religion. 
 
 "It is also undoubtedly true that people do acts of extraordinary common good inspired by religion." 
 
 He pointed to the good done by faith based organisations, including the millions of lives saved in Africa and care for the mentally ill, disabled and destitute, adding: "The proposition that religion is unadulterated poison is unsustainable. 
 
 "It can be destructive, it can also create a deep well of compassion, and frequently does." 
 
 Mr Blair said the common thread running through all faiths was to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and continued: "(Faith) answers a profound spiritual yearning, something we feel and sense instinctively. 
 
 "This is 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. 
 
 "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. 
 
 "Rather science educates us as to how the physical world is and how it functions, and faiths educates us as to the purpose to which such knowledge is put, the values that should guide its use, and the limits of what science and technology can do not to make our lives materially richer but rather richer in spirit." 
 
 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." ||||| In theory it was not an event that should have created a stir: a philosophical debate on the moral merits of religion. In an age of reality TV drama and Hollywood blockbusters loaded with special effects it would seem hard to get the masses to flock to witness such an old-fashioned, high-brow spectacle. 
 
 But when the two debaters are the world's most famous recent Roman Catholic convert in the shape of Tony Blair and the charismatic yet cancer-stricken sceptic Christopher Hitchens suddenly it becomes easier to sell tickets. 
 
 Two thousand seven hundred tickets to be precise. For that was the size of the crowd that packed the space age-looking Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto late last night to watch the two ideological foes – when it comes to religion – spar and trade verbal blows. 
 
 The occasion was part of the Munk Debate series, organised by the Aurea Foundation group, and the motion was simply: "Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world". 
 
 Both men were unabashedly stalwart in their positions. Hitchens, one of the leading "new atheists" and author of the hit book God Is Not Great, slammed religion as nothing more than supernatural gobbledegook that caused untold misery throughout human history. "Once you assume a creator and a plan it make us subjects in a cruel experiment," Hitchens said before causing widespread laughter by comparing God to "a kind of divine North Korea". 
 
 Blair, perhaps not surprisingly, was a little less forthright. On the backfoot for much of the debate he kept returning to his theme that many religious people all over the world were engaged in great and good works. They did that because of their faith, he argued, and to slam all religious people as ignorant or evil was plain wrong. "The proposition that religion is unadulterated poison is unsustainable," he said. Blair called religion at its best "a benign progressive framework by which to live our lives". 
 
 Throughout the 90-minute debate Hitchens seemed to have the crowd's sympathy. That might have been to do with his ill appearance due to cancer, but was far more likely to be down to the sharpness of his verbal barbs and the fact that 57% of the audience already agreed with his sceptical position according to a pre-debate poll, while just 22% agreed with Blair's side. The rest were undecided. 
 
 But the true winners of the debate were the organisers. The high-profile debaters and controversial subject matter ensured not only a packed hall but an overflow location where people who could not get tickets were able to watch it on TV monitors. Tickets sold out weeks ago and were selling on eBay for several times their cover price. The debate was also trailed on the front pages of some Canadian newspapers and covered by local television. 
 
 It even attracted a small but vocal knot of anti-Iraq war protestors accusing Blair of war crimes. Demonstrators unveiled placards that read "Arrest Blair" and "War criminals not welcome here", proving that, as with the merits of religion, some arguments are unlikely to ever be settled with a single night's debate. ||||| Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Friday his religious beliefs did not play a role in his decision to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq during a debate about the merits of religion in Toronto. 
 
 Blair attempted to persuade his verbal sparring opponent, writer Christopher Hitchens, that religion is a force for global good when he was asked by an audience member how religion influenced his decision to stand with the United States against Iraq. 
 
 "Religion doesn't do policy. All my decisions were based on policy and so they should be, and you may disagree with those decisions but they were made because I genuinely believed them to be right," said Blair before the audience of more than 2,600 at Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall. 
 
 Blair, 57, converted to Catholicism after leaving office in 2007. Since then he has started the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to promote understanding between religions. 
 
 He faced a fierce opponent in the debating ring Friday night. Hitchens, 61, an avowed atheist, Vanity Fair columnist and author of "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," has been a prominent voice in attacking religion. 
 
 "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?" Hitchens said in his opening remarks. 
 
 "To terrify children with the image of hell ... to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?" Hitchens asked as he opened the debate hosted by the Munk Debates center. 
 
 Though his face was pale and drawn, and his trademark mop of unruly hair gone, he was no less animated than usual in spite of his battle with cancer of the esophagus. He said earlier Friday that he scheduled his chemotherapy treatments around the debate so he "wouldn't have to let anyone down," 
 
 "This is what I do whether I'm sick or not. (Religion) is still the main argument," said Hitchens who has made it known that his diagnosis has not opened him to God or religious belief. 
 
 Hitchens fueled the debate by criticizing religion for blocking peace in the Middle East, perpetuating poverty by subjugating women as inferior and causing numerous conflicts including the genocide in Rwanda _ a country he says "is the most Christian country in the world, and one which many of the people who committed the crimes are now hiding in the pulpit." 
 
 Blair acknowledged that religion has been used to lead people to commit indescribable acts, but it has also led people to commit acts of goodness. 
 
 "Health care in Africa has been delivered by those motivated by their religion ... The abolition of slavery was achieved by combined secularism and non-secularism. At least accept that there are people who are doing great things because of their faith," he said. 
 
 Blair incited a sarcastic response from Hitchens when he argued the Northern Ireland peace process is an example of how people of different faiths can bridge their differences. 
 
 "It's very touching for Tony to say that he recently went to a meeting to bridge the religious divide in Northern Ireland, where does the religious divide come from?" Hitchens asked. "Four-hundred years and more in my own country of birth of people killing each other's children depending on what kind of Christian they were." 
 
 Although a lot of conflicts have religious roots, it's futile to try to drive religion out, Blair said. 
 
 "In the end, it's for politics and religion to try and work out a way in which religion in a world of globalization that is pushing people together can play a positive rather than negative role," he added. 
 
 Audience members voted on the debate and preliminary results posted on the Munk Debates website sided with Hitchens, with 68 percent saying that religion is more of a destructive than benign force in the world. 
 
 BBC World News and the News Channel will broadcast the debate on Jan., 1 2011.
– Famous atheist Christopher Hitchens took on famous Catholic convert Tony Blair in a debate on whether religion is a good or bad thing for the world yesterday. And while it's impossible to declare a winner on such a subjective ... oh wait, this is 2010, which means we had an audience vote: Hitchens won with 68%. Highlights include Blair insisting that religion played no role in his decision to invade Iraq and Hitchens—AP described him as "pale and drawn" amid his cancer fight—comparing the concept of God to a "divine North Korea." Blair: "Religion doesn't do policy." At another point: "It is undoubtedly true that people commit horrific acts of evil in the name of religion. It is also undoubtedly true that people do acts of extraordinary common good inspired by religion." Hitchens: "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." More at the Independent and the Guardian.