This is an excerpt from the famous BBC Radio debate between Father Frederick C. Copleston and Bertrand Russell. In this section, they discuss Leibniz's Argument from Contingency, which is a form of the Cosmological Argument. It differs from other Cosmological arguments (e.g. Kalam) in that it is consistent with an eternal universe, as it doesn't appeal to first causes, but rather the principle of sufficient reason. It can be summarized in this way:(1) Everything that exists contingently has a … [Read more...]
LINK: Audio of Russell-Copleston Debate on God’s Existence (Part 1 of 2)
October 22, 2011 By 1 Comment
LINK: Nicholas Everitt’s Review of God? A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist
October 21, 2011 By 3 Comments
LINK … [Read more...]
Repost: Shameless Self-Promotion of My Debate with Phil Fernandes
October 21, 2011 By 9 Comments
This is a re-post. Please pardon the shameless self-promotion, but the video of my 1999 debate with Phil Fernandes on naturalism vs. theism was uploaded to YouTube some time ago. If you haven't already seen it, I invite you to view it here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl2lUIku-zo … [Read more...]
Craig’s “Altar Calls”
October 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
(This is an old post from my archives, originally written around 2006.)I was watching the video of Craig's old debate with Henry Morgentaler, and the altar call at the end of his first rebuttal struck me. Craig invited Morgentaler to become a Christian. This isn't the first time he's done this; he did the same thing to Paul Kurtz when they debated.This led me to ask half-seriously, "What if Craig's opponent did the same thing to him?" For example, in the atheist's conclusion of their first … [Read more...]
Stephen Law’s Opening Statement In Debate with William Lane Craig
October 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LINK (HT: John Loftus) … [Read more...]
Summary and Assessment of the Craig-Drange Debate (1997)
October 16, 2011 By 1 Comment
(This is yet another old debate summary and assessment from my archives. I think I wrote this around 1998. I am posting it here unchanged.)On February 26, 1997 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, William Lane Craig debated Theodore Drange of West Virginia University. The topic was, "Does God exist?"Note: video of the debate is available online here.SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING THIS DEBATE SUMMARYDrange did not address each of Craig's theistic arguments in turn. Instead, he made three … [Read more...]
Summary of the Craig-Price Debate on Jesus’ Resurrection (1999)
October 16, 2011 By 2 Comments
This is yet another old debate summary from my archives. I'm not sure when I wrote this, but I'm guessing it was between 1999 and 2002. THE CRAIG-PRICE DEBATE: DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?The Veritas ForumOhio State University, 1999Curiously, the audiocassettes do not mention Robert Price's name, or even a debate at all. Instead, the label on the tape reads, "Intellectual Foundations for Belief in Jesus Christ by William Lane Craig." The tape begins with a lengthy (roughly ten minutes long), … [Read more...]
Summary and Assessment of the Craig-Draper Debate on the Existence of God (1998)
October 15, 2011 By 3 Comments
This is a another very old debate summary, which I wrote back in 1998. I have made some minor changes.SUMMARY AND ASSESSMENT OF THE CRAIG-DRAPER DEBATE: DOES GOD EXIST? (1997) United States Military Academy at West PointNote: the audio of this debate may be heard here.Craig's Opening StatementCraig's presentation was his standard, cumulative case for Christian theism.T1. The kalam cosmological argument(1) Anything which begins to exist must have a cause(2) The universe began to exist(3) … [Read more...]
Summary of the Craig-Parsons Debate, “Why I Am/Am Not a Christian”
October 14, 2011 By 1 Comment
This is a repost of a debate summary I wrote a long time ago. (I think I wrote this in 1998.) While I tried to be accurate, I don't claim this summary is perfect. If anyone identifies any errors, omissions, or anything else that requires editing, please feedback alerting me so I can fix the summary accordingly.One thing you will notice is that I tried use a consistent numbering scheme throughout the different speeches, to make it easier to identify which objections are supposed to apply to which … [Read more...]
Some (Very Incomplete) Thoughts on Luke Muehlhauser’s “How to Debate William Lane Craig”
October 12, 2011 By 8 Comments
After writing a post about William Lane Craig and John Loftus debating, I remembered that Luke Muehlhauser (Common Sense Atheism) posted an article in April 2009 about debating William Lane Craig. (LINK) Here are some very incomplete thoughts about Luke's article.I agree with Luke that many of Craig's debate opponents were unqualified, in the sense that they did not have both (a) the relevant knowledge (e.g., of philosophy of religion, metaethics, etc.); and (b) suitable debating experience. I … [Read more...]
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