Props go out to Matt Flannagan. For those who don’t subscribe to William Lane Craig’s newsletter from Reasonable Faith, it’s worth doing. I’ve read it with interest for a couple of years now. In the last one, Craig makes some comments on his debate with atheist philosopher Michael Tooley, and whose name should pop up? You can read the newsletter online HERE, but check out the excerpt below:
By contrast my debate the following evening at UNCC generated a lot of light but very little heat! My opponent for this debate on “Is God Real?” was Michael Tooley, a well-respected philosopher from the University of Colorado (Boulder). He has recently published a very complex argument against God based on examples of certain evils in the world. In preparation for the debate I worked through his argument carefully and prepared a four-point response. To read my critique of his argument click here. (I’m indebted to Timothy McGrew and Matt Flanagan for very helpful interaction!) Tooley also came well-prepared to the debate. Indeed, this was his undoing, for he had all four of his speeches (including “rebuttals”!) canned in advance. As a result, he was utterly inflexible and so didn’t respond to virtually anything I said in my rebuttals. It was as if I didn’t even need to be there! So the debate turned out to be pretty one-sided, with me replying to each of his relevant points and him just ignoring me and plugging ahead with his prepared speeches. While Dr. Tooley would, of course, disagree, I think Christian theism came away looking eminently reasonable and credible.
Well well, whose turning heads then? Kudos Matt. 🙂
John Heller
Well done Matt!
My friend was once thanked by the late French philosopher Michel Foucault for his help in a research task.