debate

Debate: Dr. David Marshall (Christianity) vs Dr. Phil Zuckerman (secular humanism)

by

Dr David Marshall has a reputation as a great Christian speaker. Rather unfortunately for him, he recently went head-to-head in a debate with Secular Humanist Dr Phil Zuckerman at Adventure Christian Church. Now as you might imagine, having a proficient speaker such as Dr Marshall on the bill generates much anticipation of a triumph for … Read more

Debating Islam on Facebook – The Shallow end vs the Deep end of the pool

by

There are two specific Facebook groups I’m in that have rather similar names, but are dominated by very different views. One, entitled ATHEISM DEBUNKED BY MUSLIMEEN (their caps not mine) is dominated by various strands of Islamic thought, and rather bizarrely has  a rule against logic and reason. No really, it reads, “Members are requested not to involve in … Read more

Catholic Priest writes about a Atheist debate he attended … its an insanely silly rebuttal.

by

David Olson, a catholic priest, has written an article in the La Crosse Tribune today in response to a debate that he attended at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, sponsored by The La Crosse Area Freethought Society and the student atheist group. It is exactly what you might expect, that swooshing sound folks distinctly heard during the debate was … Read more

Debate: The World Would Be Better Off Without Religion

by

There was a debate at NYU’s Skirball Center that was part of the Intelligence Squared debate series, “Resolved: The World Would Be Better Off Without Religion”. Supporting the atheist side were Matthew Chapman and A.C. Grayling, while Dinesh D’Souza and David Wolpe were arguing on behalf of religion. You can read the NYT’s recap or … Read more

Debating ‘true’ Believers – why bother?

by

I’ve been having some online fun today by playing my usual game of “debate the believers”. Now, least you ponder the thought, “Whats the point?”, well I have a couple of reasons. First its entertaining, especially when they come out with some jaw-dropping insanity that leaves me rolling on the floor, but also because I find that it can be educational for myself. Often I need to look into something to get the facts, unlike the believers who can simply parrot the made-up facts they buy into, and so I learn new stuff and gain new insights. Sometimes I find that I might have been wrong about something, and so I learn something new and change my mind.

Read more

Debating believers … oh so frustrating

by

Now this little post is to simply amuse you, and is not designed to actually inform, except to perhaps enable you to laugh and my foolish attempts to engage with an utterly irrational believer on a rational basis.

The context here is that I’ve been attempting to explain to him the historical facts regarding the four gospels and that the only actual claim that jesus = god emerges in the Gospel of John (written about 95 CE). I’ve also explained that the phrase “son-of-God” does not in any way imply that Jesus = God, but rather that it is a Jewish belief that an individual is simply claiming to have been adopted by God as a son (like King David was).

However, what truly astonished me is that the sticking point was his claim that Jesus was Worshiped, hence he was God.

Read more