1. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #107665 by shigglebiddy on January 5, 2008 at 12:23 am

Wolpe's argument was basically: there is no evidence for God so don't ask me for any.

And that part at the end where he talks about the evolution of "spirituality," that's in direct opposition to his God of the Pentateuch and Old Testament who is everlasting and unchanging. How is it fair to condemn people today for human sacrifice but say that it was okay thousands of years ago because God didn't tell them yet? That God seems to me very fickle. Couldn't God have just started out in the first place telling people that human sacrifice was wrong? And couldn't a perfect being create something that would apply to all generations? And if he couldn't, wouldn't he change it as he went instead of forcing people in later generations to interpret it in ways that older generations did not?

Nevertheless, it is clear that Wolpe is a very intelligent man, in a way that D'souza and McGrath are clearly not. I would love to see Hitchens debate him some time in the future.

2. A Rational Universe Implies a Creator, Science points towards Theism

Comment #104796 by shigglebiddy on December 29, 2007 at 12:57 pm

Any universe can appear as if it has a creator, whether it is orderly or not. If the universe was chaotic, appearing to follow no 'laws' at all, then a creator who was in a bad temper when he created it or an angry creator could be hypothesized. Even if the universe was totally rational (which begs the question of how an unthinking object can use reason), would the God of the Bible be the logical conclusion as to who created it?

The 'laws' that the universe follows are not stated or carved in stone, they are merely observations we have made regarding how the universe works.

3. What does atheism say about the purpose (or the meaning) of life?

Comment #104125 by shigglebiddy on December 28, 2007 at 12:25 am

I think the reason Christians feel they have such a good argument with this question or point is that with a belief in God the meaning of life is obvious: to serve Him. But the question of meaning has no bearing on whether or not God or a god exists. Believing that some supernatural being exists to give meaning is comforting to some extent, so people argue that it must be true. But if I argued that the Holocaust didn't happen because it was comforting to me to believe those vile and evil things that were done during that lowpoint of human history never happened, I would be ridiculed even by the faithful.

We have meaning enough just in existence. Each person must determine what his or her meaning in life is. But even if it was impossible to find meaning without a Creator that wouldn't mean there had to be one.

4. The empty myths peddled by evangelists of unbelief

Comment #103729 by shigglebiddy on December 26, 2007 at 3:19 pm

From where does Dawkins derive this faith in human freedom? Not from science. It comes from Christianity, which has always held that humans are different from all other animals in possessing free will.