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The Hitch vs. William Lane Craig

Amadeus

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Someone has cited William Lane Craig as being too much of an intellectual heavyweight for Dawkins. Lets see how he does against the late Christopher Hitchens.

 
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Unfortunately the only thing these debates seem to accomplish most of the time is to selectively reinforce cognitive biases. If you go in religious you are most likely going to opine that Craig kicked Hitchen's ass, If you are not religious then it works the other way, and they will see Hitchens kicking Craig's ass.

You see the same thing after politicians debate, liberals swear their guy kicked butt, conservatives swear it was their guy. The vast majority of the time it all boils down to who says what it was you wanted to hear and who reinforced your opinions.
 
Unfortunately the only thing these debates seem to accomplish most of the time is to selectively reinforce cognitive biases. If you go in religious you are most likely going to opine that Craig kicked Hitchen's ass, If you are not religious then it works the other way, and they will see Hitchens kicking Craig's ass.

You see the same thing after politicians debate, liberals swear their guy kicked butt, conservatives swear it was their guy. The vast majority of the time it all boils down to who says what it was you wanted to hear and who reinforced your opinions.

I agree. It is still an interesting debate to watch. I was unaware of this Craig guy until tosca1 pointed him out to me.

Here are Hitchens' closing arguments:

 
Someone has cited William Lane Craig as being too much of an intellectual heavyweight for Dawkins. Lets see how he does against the late Christopher Hitchens.


Oy, you're in a Hitchens thread....just to remind you, you're wearing the wrong costume (avatar). :)
 
Amadeus, this might also interest you. Hitchens' vs Lennox


 
In that video, Lennox gave a chilling remark about the intolerance of New Atheism.
 
Thanks. I'll ask him a question or two.

His response to a question about Pascal's Wager seems to be lacking. Somehow, I'm not sure how since he didn't really say, he thinks (or at least he presents one possible counter-argument against those dismissing Pascal's Wager) the probability of all other gods (e.g. Odin) can be assumed to be small, so the only real choice is between Christianity and atheism.
 
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His response to a question about Pascal's Wager seems to be lacking. Somehow, I'm not sure how since he didn't really say, he thinks (or at least he presents one possible counter-argument against those dismissing Pascal's Wager) the probability of all other gods (e.g. Odin) can be assumed to be small, so the only real choice is between Christianity and atheism.

Indeed. Craig is very critical of other religions, such as Islam, and even some denominations of Christianity. He himself has admitted that he doesn't know what is the correct interpretation of Christianity, but 'tries his best to get it right'.
 
Hitchens quote:

Even Christopher Hitchens admitted as much toward the end of his life. When asked what was the greatest contribution made by Christianity to his life, he said it was "the reminder of the complete ephemerality of human power, and indeed human existence - the transience of all states, empires, heroes, grandiose claims, and so forth. That's always with me, and I daresay I could have got that from Einstein ... and from Darwin. But the way I got it and the way it is implanted in me is certainly by Christianity."

Can a religious believer be a serious journalist? Richard Dawkins and the unbearable smugness of tweeting – Blog – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
 
OK? What's your point? He's not saying Christianity is correct.

Does it have to have a point? The way you react....seems like you're allergic to that "C" word. :mrgreen:
 
Does it have to have a point? The way you react....seems like you're allergic to that "C" word. :mrgreen:

Well, for one this is a thread about Hitch vs Craig...basically atheism versus Christianity. Second, if there's no point, what was your reason for posting it?
 
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