I recently posted a couple clips from The Way Of The Master, a movement that asserts that God's existence can apparently be proven using flawed logic and silly, broken parables.
Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, Way Of The Master's ringleaders, were recently involved in a controlled debate on ABC against two atheist founders of the Rational Response Squad (which I had not heard of previously). It was apparently the first nationally televised debate about the existence of God. Unfortunately the people on both sides are very weak debaters. ABC really scraped the bottom of the barrel.
First of all, Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort are nothing more than a couple of crackpots. Most of their arguments took the form of overly rehearsed scripted logic traps which you've already seen if you've accidentally tuned into one of their infomercials. Their goal was to prove God's existence scientifically without resorting to the Bible as evidence. Despite this, much of Ray's opening argument is a contemplation on the 10 Commandments. Also, he tries to manipulate what the word "scientific" means by breaking the word down to its Latin roots and ignoring the actual scientific method.
On the other hand you have the two atheists who actually do a very good job of refuting everything Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron say (not a hard thing to do). My only real beef with them is that they allow themselves to get so visibly flustered, and as a result come across overly hostile. But it's easy to see how you could get frustrated when your opponent thinks this image disproves evolution.
The whole thing was presided over by Martin Bashir, a man who became famous for exposing Michael Jackson as a weirdo about 20 years after everybody already knew.
So it leaves one to wonder if anyone involved in this debate was qualified to take part. For such an obvious ploy by ABC to garner some controversial ratings you'd think they'd at least get someone a bit more scholarly.
You can view the debate on ABC's page.
There is also a condensed version on YouTube, in five parts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ah, the crocoduck. Not our finest hour.
Of course these people were not qualified. If they were, we'd have had an orderly, reasoned discussion of ideals. But that kind of thing doesn't win the ratings.
As it was, though, ABC pulled off 3.4% of American households! Hooray! Two million people whose minds are more than ever cemented into extremes one way or the other.
I completely agree with everything Joe said. But that doesn't surprise me :)
Post a Comment