Reasonable Faith is the website centred around the apologetics work of William Lane Craig. I’ve subscribed to their regular email newsletter. You should too. If you had, you’d know that on the evening of Saturday the 4th of April (that’s Sunday afternoon, the 5th of April here in New Zealand), William Lane Craig will be debating Christopher Hitchens on the existence of God.
This is a break with tradition for Dr Craig, who in the past has only engaged in formal debates with people with a PhD. I guess Hitchens is sort of a folk hero for some internet atheists and due to his cult following (not unlike the following of Richard Dawkins – in fact the fan clubs may be one and the same), Craig has made an exception (but I could be wrong).
Click on the image above to link to the blog which has been set up specifically for the debate, which will double as a live webcast, so you can listen from home.
If this debate at all reflects the perceptions that seem to thrive online as well as my own observations, Craig will deliver his standard arguments, Hitchens will say little directly about them but will make use of plenty of humour, sarcasm and general ridicule of religion. I’m almost wondering what Craig will have to say in the later stages of the debate. But I could be surprised. Maybe Hitchens has done some preparation for this debate. We’ll find out tomorrow.
Brian
MP3 Audio of Hitchens vs. Craig is here.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Link removed.
Glenn
Thanks Brian. 🙂
EDIT: Upon checking, I have seen that the audio is not available at that link after all. The audio of this debate is not available free, and is being promoted exclusively through http://www.doesgodexistdebate.com/ Be sure to go there and find out about getting a copy.
Matt
Hi Glenn
Doug Geivett from Talbot has an excellent summary review here
http://douggeivett.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/william-lane-craig-vs-christopher-hitchens-first-report/. It sounds like Hitchen’s did not do well and actually yielded his closing speech but we will know when the details are out
Glenn
Matt, yeah the verdicts are pretty unanimous that I can see. Confident Christianity also has a succinct review at http://confidentchristianity.blogspot.com/2009/04/hitchens-vs-craig-debate-review.html
I’d like to hear this one, but really only out of a morbid sense of wanting to hear what happened to Hitchens.
Christian smith
How can something evolve over millions of years when the life span of the creature is much shorter?
CPE Gaebler
Uhhhhh…
Wow. I’ve never heard that one before.
Because the process of evolution requires the reproductive cycles of many, many creatures in sequence.
Because until a given creature comes about, it isn’t exactly accurate to say that it’s “that creature” that’s evolving. Under evolutionary theory, humans didn’t exist until other creatures evolved into them.
Because it’s not a single creature that’s evolving, but entire species.
Glenn
Lately it seems that I’ve been defending Darwin a bit on misconceptions. I hope people don’t get the wrong impression about me!
Christian, as CPE said, indivdual creatures dont evolve. Evolution is a measure of the change between the genetic makeup of one generation and the next. If the change contributes to the reproductive ability of the offspring, then that offspring will have a natural advantage, and will be more likely to pass on its DNA. The more generations pass, the more oppotunities exist for there to be changes in the genetic makeup of the species as a whole.