Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, April 16, 2012,
In :
Religion
I have seen the opening statements of both. I almost burst
out laughing at the poor poor tack taken by Darrel. Firstly, he sets out
deconstructing Avalos' epistemology and morality. This is both a red herring
and a shifting of the burden of proof. It matters not one jot, because that is
not the focus of the debate. The debate is "Is the bible a source of
absolute moral rules for today?" I can only see that Darrel should make a
defensive stance. Avalos could have come out and said "I derive my...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, March 2, 2012,
In :
Religion
As a fan of much of Richard Carrier's work, I am looking forward to watching this debate on whether Jesus was the Son of God or a mere apocalyptic prophet.
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, November 1, 2011,
In :
Philosophy
This, from the review by Wintery Knight, shows the refutation to the KCA that I have been banging on about for a year or so is being used against Craig in debate. Finally. Well done Peter Millican.
"1. There is no evidence that whatever begins to exist requires a cause. All the evidence we have of things beginning to exist are when something is created from rearrangements of other things that already existed.
The closest analog we have to something coming into being from nothing is quantum part...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, October 20, 2011,
In :
Religion
So, on to the rebuttals. Craig pointed out in several of his
rebuttals that Law has not, and did not seem to want to, critique the
cosmological argument. Craig does have some beef here as Law seemed to want to
debate Craig’s version of God rather than the more fundamental argument over A
God’s existence. Thus in true debate point-scoring, Law would take a hit here.
However, as Law plainly stated, and I think this was a wise move, this would
have broadened the scope too far and wasn’t im...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, October 19, 2011,
In :
Religion
So, on to Law’s opening statements. It’s probably better to
get this from the horse’s mouth - http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/2011/10/opening-speech-craig-debate.html.
However, I will duly sum up. Law, much to his credit, claimed he was only
interested in defending his position using only one argument, based on the
Evidential Problem of Evil. That being, if God is omnipotent, omniscient and
omnibenevolent, then he is able, knows how and is loving enough to want to do
something about all ...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, October 18, 2011,
In :
Religion
Last night, two friends and I went to the Stephen Law vs
William Lane Craig debate at Westminster
where the two philosophers were debating ‘Does God Exist?’ Craig’s Reasonable
Faith tour has been hotly anticipated by Christians and non-Christians alike,
and with the relative unknown of Stephen Law (in debating terms), there was a
feeling of unpredictability thrown in to the usual wager that Craig would win.
The debate was good, though not necessarily for the
straightforward reason o...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, October 18, 2011,
In :
Religion
I was lucky enough to be in Westminster at the Law vs Craig debate on Craig's Reasonable Faith tour. It was a cracking night. I do not have time to review it yet. Suffice to say that it was probably a draw. The format was good and the contributions good. I thought it was well-narrowed down, and Craig did not produce a scatter-gun approach.
A much larger review to follow.
Also, I got to meet both of them, gave Law my book, and asked Craig a question to which he couldn't answer. Great.
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, October 16, 2011,
In :
Religion
I am going to see William Lane Craig debate Stephen Law tomorrow in Westminster. I am pretty excited, even though the best one can hope for is some kind of philosophical impasse. Anyway, I have penned a couple of questions which I would love the opportunity to ask. I will try and get my tuppence worth in the Q & A:
Given that God is perfect, this must either be the perfect
creation, or the most perfect created parameters that could achieve the best possible outcome. Since plate tectonic which...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, October 9, 2011,
In :
Religion
I have just listened to Ray Bradley debate William Lane Craig. I heard this several years ago but didn't really pay it close attention. This time round I was quite shocked at how many points Craig evaded, or logical demands from Bradley that he met with the terms "God may" and so on.
Craig squirmed big time when Bradley pressed him on subsets of compossibles. This is a REALLY important point. I will try to set it out here:
Imagine a set of people, call that set A. These are all the people in t...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, April 4, 2011,
In :
Religion
What annoys me is the fact that by now people should know how to debate Craig. Price and Ahmed pretty much tried the right tack with some success. It sounds close to ad hom, but you need to set your stall out by attacking Craig's methodology. I lie in bed at night sometimes dreaming of how I would debate Craig. This is the definition of sad, I know. He puts himself in an unassailable position in debate terms because he
1) uses a scatter-gun approach that means that you have to answer about 100... Continue reading ...