Ted, I had no idea you agreed to such a debate - and the fact that you did
encourages me greatly. I think the possibilities there are tremendous, and
offer a unique opportunity to get people to think about God. Particularly
people who normally wouldn't, because the God they hear about normally is
too "thick", so to speak. As I said, I think contemporary apologetics tends
to get the order mixed up in the west - even Craig, who's very good at
specifying what a single given argument can get a person as far as, tends to
come across as someone arguing in favor of a broader, thicker Christianity.
As for Coyne, if I'm recalling correctly about him ceding the compatibility
of science with deism, then I can see why he would not want to debate that
topic. My anecdotal experience is that the more evangelical atheists don't
want to broach the topic in detail at all - fondness for Voltaire and Thomas
Paine quotes aside, deism's a tricky topic for them.
On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 4:23 PM, Ted Davis <tdavis@messiah.edu> wrote:
> I agree with this: it's significant that some of the atheists are willing
> to concede the possibility of a deist God. I see the value of this more
> than many here do, I think, so much so that the one time I agreed to do a
> formal debate, I argued for theism generally not Christianity specifically
> vs an agnostic philosopher. The question was, Is Nature All there Is?
>
> This is the same question I challeged Coyne to debate, on his own site, but
> I've had no reply. Perhaps he already agrees with my answer?
>
> Ted
>
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Received on Sat Aug 15 16:54:46 2009
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