Atheism debates
In respect to atheism and debate, although atheists claim there are reasonable arguments for atheism, the quality of atheist debate has been quite poor from the proponents of atheism. Below are some examples which demonstrate the unreasonableness of atheist debaters.
Doug Jesseph
In October of 1997, atheist Jeffrey Jay Lowder, a founder of Internet Infidels, stated that he believed that in regards to atheism "the most impressive debater to date" was Doug Jesseph.[1] Yet Doug Jesseph claimed in a debate with William Lane Craig in 1996 that the origin of life had a detailed atheistic explanation(s).[2] In 1996, John Horgan wrote the following regarding what the highly respected origin of life researcher Stanley Miller believed to the case regarding naturalistic explanations of the origin of life: "Miller seemed unimpressed with any of the current proposals on the origin of life, referring to them as “nonsense” or “paper chemistry.”"[3] In addition, in 1996, John Horgan wrote the following in Scientific American: "The origin of life is a science writer's dream. It abounds with exotic scientists and exotic theories, which are never entirely abandoned or accepted, but merely go in and out of fashion."[4]
Gordon Stein
In 1985, Christian apologist Dr. Greg Bahnsen and prominent proponent of atheism Gordon Stein had a debate at the University of California, Irvine regarding the positions of atheism and theism. John Frame wrote regarding the debate in which Dr. Bahnsen used the transcendental argument for the existence of God that "In the end, Stein walked and talked like a broken man."[5] The Greg Bahnsen-Gordon Stein debate was recorded and transcribed and was dubbed "The Great Debate".[6][7]
Greg Bahnsen and Michael Martin
Dr. Greg Bahnsen became known as the "man atheists fear most".[8] This is because Harvard-educated Dr. Michael Martin was scheduled to debate Bahnsen but pulled out of the debate at the "eleventh hour". A press release at the time said that Dr. Martin offered ruses on why he pulled out and didn't want the scheduled debate recorded but the real reason was that "...Michael Martin is afraid that he will be publicly humiliated just as his friend and fellow atheist, Dr. Gordon Stein, was..."[9]
Martin later released his transcendental argument for the non-existence of God (TANG) in 1996 which was rebutted by Christian apologists.[10]
Creationists tend to win creation-evolution debates
A majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the naturalistic evolutionary position since World War II have been atheists.[11][12] Robert Sloan, Director of Paleontology at the University of Minnesota, reluctantly admitted to a Wall Street Journal reporter that the "creationists tend to win" the public debates which focused on the creation vs. evolution controversy.[13][14] In August of 1979, Dr. Henry Morris reported in an Institute for Creation Research letter the following: “By now, practically every leading evolutionary scientist in this country has declined one or more invitations to a scientific debate on creation/evolution.”[14] Morris also said regarding the creation scientist Duane Gish (who had over 300 formal debates): “At least in our judgment and that of most in the audiences, he always wins.”[14] Generally speaking, leading evolutionists generally no longer debate creation scientists.[15]
- ↑ http://www.infidels.org/infidels/newsletter/1997/october.html
- ↑ http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/doug_jesseph/jesseph-craig/jesseph1.html
- ↑ http://www.trueorigin.org/abio.asp
- ↑ http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/orignl01.html#orgnflfmjrprblmschcknndgg
- ↑ http://www.frame-poythress.org/frame_articles/Bahnsen.htm
- ↑ http://prosapologian.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/great-debates/
- ↑ http://www.bellevuechristian.org/faculty/dribera/htdocs/PDFs/Apol_Bahnsen_Stein_Debate_Transcript.pdf
- ↑ http://mywebpages.comcast.net/webpages54/ap/biobahn.html
- ↑ Anon., Press Release
- ↑ http://www.reformed.org/apologetics/index.html?mainframe=/apologetics/martin_TAG.html
- ↑ Don Batten, A Who’s Who of evolutionists Creation 20(1):32, December 1997.
- ↑ Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution, Chapter 1, Facts and Bias
- ↑ Ankerberg, John, and Weldon, John, Truth in Advertising: Damaging the Cause of Science
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Fraser, Bill,Who wins the Debates?
- ↑ http://www.icr.org/article/811/