I love a good debate (1)

I love a good debate. I was recently searching YouTube for a specific video I once viewed, not of a debate but of a lecture, when I stumbled across a promising title and clicked it.

Amazing Christian Apologist Destroys Atheist In Debate (YouTube, posted Dec 17, 2012 by Athanasius TV).

The debate runs an hour and 34 minutes, so to say this diverted my research is an understatement. I was completely derailed; mostly because the title is a little misleading. . .another understatement. I’ll briefly outline the debate for your convenience, and although this was not a good debate in the sense that each participant was on point and coherent, (they completely flubbed up a story from 2 Samuel) it is worth a look for a different reason. Chiefly, because I am writing about it and it will help you immensely if you intend to read this series. But also, because the amateurishness of the debate closely matches what you will find in real world encounters between people with drastically different worldviews. It is my humble opinion that all of us should have some real world experience in debate–especially Christians who tend to avoid debate.

Debate Topic: A short video posing a question which attempts to prove that those who claim to have faith in God actually don’t believe in God. The Question: Why do you sin, when you know God is watching, yet don’t sin, when you know a friend or loved one is watching?

Representing Atheist point of view: NEGATIONofP
Position: We’re discussing only the question, not the structure or presentation of the video.

Representing Theist point of view: Jason Burns
Position: You introduced and showed the video, therefore its structure, assumptions, and prejudices are not only fair game, but of critical importance in exposing the errors of your logic.

Moderator: DPRJONES
My assessment of moderator: Clearly not neutral and a little unclear about the full range of the debate topic.

Online Forum: ??? YouTube – Wasn’t clear ???

Summary:
The structure and presentation of the question in the context of the video was so critical to the debate that NEGATIONofP used his initial 20 minutes in the debate to introduce and play the short video, admitting that careful attention was given to its verbiage, but claimed that the structure and presentation was not of critical importance to the question. Attempting to disarm a particular line of attack at the outset, NEGATIONofP stated he didn’t appreciate how earlier critics of his video focused primarily on the structure and presentation rather than the question. Mr. Burns repeatedly asserted the logical errors of the video, only to be chided by his opponent and the moderator that he was averting the question.

Conclusion: The whole thing reminded me of the old mathematical puzzle, “Where did the dollar go?” Unfortunately, the underlying assumptions of the question in the context of the video were never fully addressed, and the question itself was never answered. So in actuality, both sides failed to do anything other than bamboozle me into watching a pretty lame video of some pop-psychology-theory of an atheist/evolutionist, which may have been the whole point.

What I was struck by— even though my suspicion was piqued that this may have been an elaborate way to boost the view count of a poorly conceived video— was the effort both participants made to show respect to each other. There did seem to be genuine frustration and sincere mutual respect. For that reason and that reason alone, I am writing up a blog entry about the random YouTube video I came across while looking for something else. Also because it is summer break, my kids are bothering me, and I was originally looking for a reason to sequester myself in my office for a little while.

I guess if I’m asking you to watch a 94 minute video, I should at least make it a series of blog entries. That said, I’ll leave you today with the above explanation and link to the video, and below an old favorite to refresh your logic circuits. Tomorrow, we’ll see where this takes us.

“Where Did the Dollar Go?”

Three friends eat at a restaurant. The bill is $25. Each friend gives $10 to the waiter, which the waiter gives to the Cashier. The Cashier returns $5 to the Waiter, but unable to split $5 three ways, the Waiter gives the friends one dollar each and keeps 2 dollars as a tip.

They all paid $10 and got $1 back. $10 – $1 = $9
There were three of them. 3 X $9 = $27
So they paid $27 and the waiter kept $2. $27 + $2 = $29
Where did the other dollar go? $30 – $29 = $1

Solution

Series Navigation for “I Love A Good Debate:”

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