Does God Exist? The Nightline Faceoff
Since I poked some fun last week at the announcement of an ABC Nightline-sponsored debate on the existence of God, I feel somewhat obligated to link to the actual debate, now that ABC News has put it up online. The debate was between child actor Kirk Cameron and evangelist Ray Comfort on the one side and two members of the atheistic Rational Response Squad on the other. The face-off only caught my attention because Cameron and Comfort boasted ahead of time that they would be able to prove the existence of God “100%” without resorting to either faith or revelation. Since this is an accomplishment my seminary’s patron saint, Cornelius Van Til, declared impossible, I was interested to see how that would go down.
A friend of mine who watched it told me, “It’s pretty much what you’d expect it to be. 90% of it has nothing to do with what it was supposed to be about, and the 10% that does is McDowell-like circularity.” I myself will have to wait until after my last exam next Thursday before I give this any further attention. In the meantime, the greatest proof of the existence of God as far as I’m concerned will be if I once again pass all my finals!
Share on Facebook
May 14th, 2007 at 8:09 am
After a quick preview, the only good thing I can say is that the atheists on the panel are as dimwitted as kirk and comfort…
May 14th, 2007 at 8:41 am
I still won’t be watching this until after exams, but having studied the Rational Response Squad web site for my AP 213 paper, I can confirm that neither side was putting forth its best or brightest.
Whatever any of us may think about Van Til on the whole, I think he was right about this much: as soon as a Christian theist admits to any common ground basis of reason with the unbeliever, he has already ceded the battle to the unbeliever.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Check out the debate between the Rev. Al Sharpton and Christopher Hitchens: http://www.slate.com/id/2166143/. It’s hillarious.