Dawkins Loses Debate 324 v 136 Against Rowan Williams
by nullasalusHere's the news and the video link.
Plus 85 abstentions. This took place at Cambridge with the votes coming from Cambridge students, who I imagine don't exactly comprise a population of devoted Christian belief. What's really interesting is that the topic was whether religion had a place in the 21st century – and defending "religion" strikes me as dicier than defending, say, the reasonableness of believing in God's existence, at least from a popular standpoint. As the 'nones' in the US show, plenty of people believe in God while apparently having a damn low view of religion.
More than that… c'mon. Dawkins and company got rolled by a group led up by Rowan Williams of all people? This wasn't exactly a presentation of the heavy guns of Christian thought, philosophy or apologetics.
February 5th, 2013 at 8:04 pm
Congratulations Mr. Dawkins!
Comment by Eugen — February 5, 2013 @ 8:04 pm
February 6th, 2013 at 1:28 am
Eh, they just don't want to give up their glorified social club, aka the Church of England.
Comment by Guts — February 6, 2013 @ 1:28 am
February 6th, 2013 at 3:15 am
That's pretty much the thing. I don't think much of Rowan Williams. The Anglicans aren't exactly very popular in the UK right now, and I imagine that's particularly among students. For Dawkins to lose that decisively, on that subject, to that guy, says a lot about Dawkins and company.
Comment by nullasalus — February 6, 2013 @ 3:15 am
April 3rd, 2013 at 6:52 am
It is said that Dawkins who partnered with John Maynard, pleaded with audience to not vote for his opponents during the 1986 Oxford debate with Wilder Smith and Edgar Andrews. I'm not sure if it is caught on audio but anyone interested can find full debate here below. Keep in mind with the exception of a very few, it was before all the challenges to neo Darwinism (as published in peer review even by some evolutionist themselves) or even before any real challenges to the junk DNA paradigm. If they knew what they now know about all the failed predictions of the modern synthesis. I don't think Dawkins would have even showed up with his 1980's view of evolution and what he thought at that time were the iconic smoking guns that we again now know are failed predictions.
Comment by themayan — April 3, 2013 @ 6:52 am