Feb 28, 2008 - 03:58 PM

By Josie Newman

DURHAM -- The series of debates between varying religions held on Friday and Saturday at All Saints Catholic High School in Whitby featured humour and pathos, anger and anguish, as well as an overabundance of facts about three major world religions and one philosophy.

Dave Hunt, a resident of Oregon who worked for 20 years as an accountant, has had almost 40 books published about Biblical research and prophecy. A member of the Plymouth Brethren, he travels the world speaking in churches, at conferences and participating in some debates.

During Friday night's debate, Mr. Hunt claimed the Hindu term karma is amoral, senseless and hopeless because "karma perpetuates sin, inflicting the same sin that a person inflicted on somebody else back onto them."

Budhendranauth Doobay said that karma is what determines a person's place and destiny in life but never gave a clear explanation of what it means.

"Some of the pictures depicting the Hindu religion are shockingly evil," said Mr. Hunt as he displayed a copy of Hinduism Today with serpents in the hair of one of the Hindu gods. "Have you ever seen someone with shrunken human skulls or severed heads? It's a bit frightening."

Mr. Doobay, who grimaced and put his head in his hands while he listened to Mr. Hunt, responded by saying that, in Hinduism, the serpent represents longevity.

"The serpents in the hair represent human vices -- hate, anger and others -- that we try to conquer. You don't have to go to church to be Hindu, you just live by the golden rule. It doesn't matter what religion you are," said Mr. Doobay, a cardiologist who started a place of Hindu worship in Scarborough.

He told Mr. Hunt to "open up your mind. Why is your religion better than mine?" and said that Hindus don't believe in heaven or hell. Mr. Hunt retorted that there are two destinations -- heaven and hell -- and that only faith in Jesus Christ can take a person to heaven.

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Mr. Hunt opened his debate with humanist Christopher DiCarlo by saying it's totalitarian for atheists to dictate that children shouldn't be taught religion in school.

"The problem with the atheists' debate about evolution is that there's no proof for the origin of the species," Mr. Hunt said. "How could even one cell, such a complex miracle, come into existence by chance?"

Mr. DiCarlo countered that it's more important to live one's life as a decent person, treating others well, than to worry about whether God really does exist.

Mr. DiCarlo is a University of Ontario Institute of Technology assistant professor and the author of several books, including How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass: a Guide to Critical Thinking. He defines himself as an "agetheist" who is an atheist in regard to all defined religions, but an agnostic about the reason for existence.

"My purpose here today is not to offend religious sensitivities," Mr. DiCarlo said. "I'm a former Catholic myself and was an altar boy for five years. All religions have flaws in human reasoning. I'd love to know there was a God who existed and when I died, he'd take care of me."

Mr. DiCarlo read several Bible verses about varying topics that he said contradicted one another.

"If it makes you feel good to believe in heaven, then go ahead," Mr. DiCarlo said. "But don't think I'm so wrong that I need to be helped. I was raised as a Catholic and I never remember anywhere in the New Testament where it said 'Verily I say unto you, go into foreign lands and kill people for their oil,' " he said in reference to U.S. President George Bush.

Mr. DiCarlo's explanation for why people believe in God goes back to "caveman angst."

"A caveman probably looked at a dead man, rotting, with flies buzzing all around him, and thought that will be me in a few years. Hence, the need to believe in immortality."

Mr. Hunt debated Mr. DiCarlo's line of reasoning that God forces himself on people by threat of punishment.

"Foreknowledge is not the same as predestination," Mr. Hunt said. "God can't make you believe in Him -- that can only come about through our willingness."

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Mr. Hunt took a break when Frank Sherwin, a zoologist and head of the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego, Calif. , gave a detailed lecture trying to disprove the theory of evolution based on a lack of evidence for macroevolution, the theory that species evolved from one another.

"There's an absence of transitional forms, and when they do appear they're sudden and abrupt," he said.

Mr. Sherwin said 95 per cent of fossil records are clams and recent mudstone research supports the creation flood model.

Mr. Sherwin was raised in a secular household and became a Christian while serving with the American army in Vietnam. After conversion, he remained an evolutionist, but read some information that made him question the validity of macroevolution.

"I developed an insane interest in biology, went to college and got a degree in biology," he said in an interview. "Then I went to graduate school for zoology, including a course on evolution, and studied with a class full of Darwinists. I believe the Genesis account that the world was built in six days."

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The grand finale, a debate between Mr. Hunt and Shabir Ally, an imam and host of the television show Let the Qur'an Speak, began with Mr. Hunt tearing down Mohammed the prophet as a self-serving despot who was responsible for the writing of extreme Qur'anic verses.

"Mohammed told one man to divorce his wife so he could marry her and he ordered an attack on a group of people during Ramadan although the Qur'an explicitly forbids war during Ramadan.

"The history of slaughter is Islam," Mr. Hunt said. "There have been more people killed in eastern Europe and north Africa by Muslims than Hitler killed during World War Two."

Mr. Ally responded by saying that Vatican II and the United Church recognize Islam as one of the major world religions and said that God informs Muslims through reason as well as scripture.

"Our interpretation should be inter-textual and in the context of our cultural setting."

He read several Bible verses detailing rife violence and said that Samson, an Israelite prophet who killed many Philistines, was the first suicide bomber.

"There were more killed by him than were killed during the whole 9-11 incident."

Christianity is much more denigrating toward women than Islam, Mr. Ally said, quoting several strict verses written by the apostle Paul, and explained that Muslim women wear burkas and head scarves to protect themselves from unwarranted advances. In some ways, even Jesus was violent, he said.

A heated debate ensued about the validity of Christ's death and resurrection, with Mr. Ally raising questions about the ability to die after the number of hours Christ hung on the cross. He discussed the theory that Christ was put in a tomb and then walked out three days later.

Despite the crescendo rising at times, all four debates were peaceful and informative. Organizer Paul McGregor said he's looking forward to holding a similar event next year, which would mark the fifth time he's convened public debates on religion in Durham Region.