Friday, July 08, 2011

Will Richard Dawkins Debate William Lane Craig?

William Lane Craig's UK Speaking Tour is coming in October 2011. This includes a debate with Polly Toynbee at Central Hall Westminster on Mon, 17 Oct at 7:30pm, the "Is God a Delusion?" Lecture at Sheldonian Theatre on Tues, 25 Oct from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, and a debate on Does God Exist? with Peter Atkins at Manchester University on Wed, 26 Oct from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Register for these events at the Unbelievable page here, and get more info from BeThinking here. Here's a teaser video:

9 comments :

Nick Potts said...

Though I do sympathize for Dawkins because he is at a lose-lose situation, being that if he does debate Craig he would get slaughtered but if he doesn't he is a coward (and rightly so)...I do not give my sympathies to Dawkins because he has a big mouth and is willing to rant against the Christian religion but lacks the courage to stand up for his belief. He either doesn't have enough faith in his own position or he knows that his position cannot stand up against the scrutiny of well established philosophers such as William Lane Craig. I do not give my sympathies to Dawkins because the Scriptures says that he has no excuse...so I won't give him any.

Richard Morgan said...

So now Richard Dawkins is gaining fame for NOT debating.
If you ask me, it's a brilliant PR/marketing strategy. Headlines : "Dawkins wasn't there!"
Wouldn't work for me, alas. Everybody refuses to debate me....

Eddie said...

One would think Dawkins who is normally so confident in the strength of his own worldview would relish the thought of defeating one of the world's greatest defenders of the Christian faith.
Dawkins is also contradicting himself when he says he won't debate a creationist as John Lennox is a creationist and an advocate of I.D...
Looks to me that Dawkins is not all that sure his belief in atheism will stand up to Craig's sound philosophical arguments.

Ex N1hilo said...

Whoa, you guys. Dr. Dawkins does not have "faith" or "beliefs" as you suppose. Atheism indicates merely a lack of belief.

Faith is for those who believe in fairy stories. What Dawkins has is the certain knowledge of reality that only Science can provide!

Eddie said...

Hi Sam,
Would you say that science tells us why there is something instead of nothing?
But on a more direct question to you Sam.. why do you even care what anyone believes?
Surely if as Dawkins says were just dancing to the tune of our DNA why would an atheist even bother to try convince somebody that God doesn’t exist.. Furthermore if he can’t prove it isn’t the atheist acting on faith?
BTW I don’t know of any Christians who believe in fairy stories, but if we did believe in fairies would the atheists be really all that bothered?
Ed

Birdieupon said...

"Atheism indicates merely a lack of belief."

Wrong, this is a modern, populist distortion of the word. For centuries it has meant positive belief in the Greek proposition "atheos" (i.e. the negation of Gods). Even Anthony Flew recognised this as late as 1984 when he tried to change the definition.

More to the point, however, atheism as "lack of belief" is a useless term. It changes the subject from the question of God (does he exist? yes/no?) to profiling an individual's psychological state (does Joe MGraw from down the road lack belief in God? yes/no?). Such psychological profiling is completely compatible with God's existence - there could still be a God even if there were people who lacked the belief (or for that matter, cats, dogs, babies, chairs and toilet paper... which also lack belief and thereby count as "atheists")!

The fact that it diverts the conversation away from God, and onto the person (or thing) that lacks a belief.... tells us nothing. We're still left asking "so, is there a God, or not"?

At the end of the day if a person has no knowledge of any reason to assert "there is a God" (theism) or "there is no God" (atheism) they need to cut to the chase and admit they're an agnostic. To cling onto the title of "atheist" in this way is simply a lazy and disingenuous abuse of the word.

Russell said...

I think Sam's comment was sarcastic

Sam Harper said...

Dawkins doesn't mere lack a belief in God. He actually HAS a belief that God does not exist, which he attempts to defend in "The God Delusion."

thefoolofthecabin said...

After Craig punch below the belt to Dr. Krauss (see to this) I think Dawkins, Grayling and others are right into refusing to debate such an unfair-play fellow.

Craig is not difficult to beat. He is too proud of following an strict logic (he often does, but in a shorter extent than he and his followers think) but very often he applies it over false premises.

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