Hitchens vs. Demski, debate on Thursday.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[urlhttp://www.pcawebcast.com/2010debate/]Does a Good God Exist?[/url]
Dr. William Dembski and Christopher Hitchens
Thursday, November 18, 8:30 a.m. CT

[Trolldor]

..when's that in Human Time?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

..when's that in Human Time?

Way past your bed time.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

..when's that in Human Time?

Check the time zones for Chicago. Same time.

[Beelzebub]

Anyone catch the debate? Any comments?
(The video will not be available until Nov 22nd, according to the website)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Despite cancer, celebrated atheist Christopher Hitchens remains firm in his non-belief

11:12 PM CST on Thursday, November 18, 2010

By TOM BENNING / The Dallas Morning News
tbenning@dallasnews.com

World-renowned author and atheist Christopher Hitchens challenged the existence of God with all his usual tools and arguments: philosophy, science, history and yes, even Scripture.

But his most passionate rejection of religion, and specifically Christian salvation, came from the more personal perspective of a man who was diagnosed with esophageal cancer this summer.

"To me, the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can't give way is an offer of something not worth having," he said during a debate Thursday at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.

Hitchens, 61, has repeatedly scoffed at the notion that his closeness to death would somehow impact his long-held beliefs, and he only mentioned his illness in passing during a nearly two-hour exchange with William Dembski, a research professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Even though a heightened sense of mortality loomed large, Hitchens remained firm in his convictions against religion, especially when describing what "conversation" he wants to have while he is still alive.

"I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don't know ... enough yet," he said. "That I haven't understood enough. That I can't know enough."

Prestonwood officials organized the event, which was open to the public, to challenge the faith of students at Prestonwood Christian Academy and other Christian schools and to prepare them for the differing viewpoints they will inevitably face some day.

The British-born, Oxford-educated Hitchens took on the task with relish as he sparred amicably with his opponent. He made a point of addressing the students directly, telling them they don't need to accept an "absolute authority."

"Don't think of that as a gift," said Hitchens, who showed no ill effects from cancer treatment, other than a bald head. "Think of it as a poison chalice. Push it aside, however tempting it is."

Dembski, a leading proponent of the intelligent design theory of creation, was equally aggressive in defending God and attacking Hitchens' beliefs. He set about "deconstructing" evolution and listed scientific evidence that he said pointed to a designer behind the universe.

"Getting from design and biology to theism is not a big stretch," he said.

Dembski also tackled head-on Hitchens' oft-repeated assertion that Christianity has caused countless episodes of destruction and death.

Dembski readily acknowledged that religion can be a problem. But he said Hitchens and others fail to acknowledge all the good it has accomplished. "We are sick, yes, but I'd say not incurably so," he said. "If fact, the cure is there."

[Rob]

I ended up downloading this through torrent and I have to say Demski is a worm. The amount of intellectual dishonesty displayed by him during this debate is sickening.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I ended up downloading this through torrent and I have to say Demski is a worm. The amount of intellectual dishonesty displayed by him during this debate is sickening.

The mission for Demski isn't to tell the truth, it's to lie for jesus. If you keep that in mind his behaviour is completely unsurprising.