Part 2 of the atheist debate is now online

May 10th, 2007 • 2 comments atheism, christianity, debate, tv

Just dug up the link http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3160648 from abcnews.com — although it was buried in the site.

Although the overall debate was poor, this second part is on the whole a bit better. Both sides skirt the issues proposed to them but tried to still make some point that people may link to whatever they were asked. Here’s some interesting things I found that the Christians ignored:

(Ray wants to state there were no people before the Bible)

(Kirk’s bizarre denial of evolution)

(Kirk is completely floored when Brian asks him “How can you not walk a mile without taking one step at a time?” and has absolutely nothing to say in defense. Instead he asks for the question again and skips to macroevolution)

(someone posed the question about Communist states acting as atheists)

(Kirk says it’s love of their faith and people, that’s why they’re killed. It’s in the audience questions segment).

(Ray skirts the entire issue by talking about light/darkness and ends up agreeing with the original question posed to him and could not explain why other than saying “It’s not true”. Kirk fumbles.)

(Ray talks about suffering instead of directly addressing the question. Uses distraction tactics to hinge upon fear mongering. Ray also says to not use “suffering” as a rejection of God although it has no basis in the question)

What the atheists missed or ignored:

(they share a great number of similarities but this is Kelly’s area of “expertise”)

(and I mean any godhead figure)

(other Atheists have postulated on this as well)

(Martin made the most salient point about this earlier in the debate)

Everything I think they missed were either questions directly asked to them or inferred by the questions asked to them. Believe me, some of this crazy stuff I could never make up.

Atheist debate, part 2

May 10th, 2007 • atheism, christianity, debate, tv

After last night’s sad attempt at showing the debate on Nightline, ABC is airing the rest online today. It was supposed to be on abcnews.com at 1PM EDT although I did not find any direct links. It should be on abcnews.com/abcnewsnow at 2PM EDT. I will post a direct link to the player as soon as I find one.

Although, what was shown on TV was merely about 20 minutes of the 90 minute debate and what’s been shown online so far has been far less than 90 minutes as well. In total, I’ve seen less than an hour of footage so what happened to the other 30 to 40 minutes worth?

Debate footage from abcnews.com

May 9th, 2007 • 2 comments atheism, christianity, debate, tv

Well, I watched the whole thing that was available from ABC and was less than amazed. If you’ve seen the teaser the RRS released, you’ve pretty much seen the whole thing. Both sides didn’t do very well in supporting their claims although, Comfort didn’t even manage to do what he claimed he could do. Cameron sat back most of the time and would chime in every so often but he was there to be exactly what he is: a name to draw people in.

Sapient and Kelly did OK but just as poorly at the same time. Kelly managed to be a better debater than Sapient but she too was offering little to their side. She did clearly get across some points that managed to stump both Comfort and Cameron but I could guess that any other Christian would have been able to spit out something in rebuttal. Sapient did manage to make both Cameron and Comfort speechless a few times with his very direct questioning. Overall, it was more of the same but in a widely accessible public forum for the masses to consume.

What was released today was only half of the debate and the rest should be online tomorrow according to ABC after Nightline airs with the same footage but should hopefully include more insightful clips. Since this was a 90 minute debate, I’m very interested in what we were not yet shown as the teaser from the RRS included segments from everything that was released today.

The debate is now airing

May 9th, 2007 • atheism, christianity, debate, tv

I finally dug up the somewhat buried link that’s directly to the player: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3156022

It’s split up into parts that will be used on Nightline so it makes me wonder just what they edited out.

The ABC debate is streaming soon

May 9th, 2007 • atheism, christianity, debate, tv

Looking around abcnews.com. The direct link should be here. Right now, there is a nearly 7 minute teaser from Nightline that will air later tonight. The full debate should be online shortly. The current teaser is giving a background of Cameron and the evangelism of the Way of The Master that both Cameron and Comfort put on.

I may do a live blogging but this may not occur due to work restraints. It’s funny to hear Comfort start off with his cola can argument that’s completely baseless.

ABC Atheist versus Christian debate teaser

May 9th, 2007 • atheism, christianity, debate, tv

I just watched the teaser video released by the Rational Response Squad, or RRS, over at Pharyngula. It’s 13 minutes of the 90 minutes that should be shown tomorrow on ABC. I’ll have to agree with PZ in the fact that Comfort and Cameron were pretty terrible but then, this is only 13 minutes of video that’s cherry picked from the entire debate making the RRS representatives look good. Although, they weren’t that great either.

A few other blogs have mentioned that they’re reading from prewritten materials so this throws the entire “debate” aspect out the window aside from the times where they’re asking the other side questions — thought it comes across as more of punches than questions. Just from this short video, Comfort did absolutely nothing to prove scientifically that the Christian God exists, he used his age old speech of “This is a painting, it must have a painter” as I wrote about a few days ago. The entire watchmaker theory proves very little of an ethereal guy in the sky. When asked very specific questions, there were times where neither Comfort nor Kirk could actually give an answer and even Martin Bashir was amazed by this, they could not answer simple questions that I’m sure other Christians would have belted out responses to.

I’m not going to entirely say that the Christian side of this was terrible, Sapient did a pretty bad job himself. His credibility goes down immediately since he’s dressed very casually at what is supposed to be a very serious affair but Kelly was looking rather cute in that dress. Aesthetics aside, Sapient fumbled here and there and misquoted some things but overall made valid points as did Kelly. Many of these Comfort and Cameron could not rebut. But Sapient did spend a good portion of the time reading from paper which gave off a monotone, boorish vibe which, to me, does not help his other shortcomings at all. But at least they acknowledge they didn’t do all that great on their own website. This is far more than Comfort did:

Just a quick note to let you know that the debate went wonderfully.

When I say “wonderfully” I have to qualify it. It was like an open air with an unreasonable and loud heckler. The “heckler” in this case wasn’t just the two atheists we were there to debate, but the fifty atheists in the audience. As per ABC’s stipulations, the audience was composed half-and-half : fifty Christians and fifty atheists. The Christians were very quiet and polite; the atheists weren’t. It was very apparant [sic] who was who in the audience. It seemed that no matter what we said, it was completely ignored by Brian and Kelly (the atheists) and then followed up with their anger, mockery, and insults. But as with a good open air, the heckler is simply a platform to speak to the crowd who is listening. In this case there is a crowd of millions who will hear clear, concise evidence for the existance [sic] of God. How incredible. So I am delighted, because of what we were able to say.

…

God bless,
Ray Comfort

(from Hemant)

He acts if there were never a moment where he and Cameron did not pulverize anything Brian or Kelly threw at him but the video shows otherwise. Calling the atheists “hecklers” doesn’t help his lacking credibility either.

The video is going to be streamed from ABC tomorrow at 2PM EDT so make sure you take your lunch at work then! I will!

Mithraism on Cities of the Underwold: Rome

May 8th, 2007 • cult, history, tv

Tonight I watched the episode of CotW which was based in Rome. Overall, things were interesting and I found it pretty amazing to see most of the structures that were on the show were still relatively in tact. Trajan’s Basilica was amazing to see. But that’s not what caught my eye. What did was the first 15 or so minutes of the show where Eric Geller got to explore a Mithraeum behind the Circus Maximus.

A museum? No. Mausoleum? Nope! A Mithraeum. It was the Mithraic place of worship built in a cave or underground. Many of these have been found in Rome and the former states of the Empire yet we do know very little about what was actually conducted in a Mithraeum. Thanks to the Avestas and Indians Vedas we know who Mithra was and what his deity entailed but we still cannot conclude what went on between the members who attended a Mithraeum. A lack of real written scripture or history attributes to this as well. The Mithraeum that Geller got to explore was in relatively good shape given the fact that it was most likely 1800 years old. Many of the walls still stood from the foundation although many of them were eroded by time. A large number of benches were still well in tact and the many rooms of the Mithraeum were also in tact. Then they panned to a votive of Mithras slaying the primordial bull during his ascent to the heavens. If it was the original that had stood since the place was still in use, it was in marvelous condition and from what I could see only had a small piece missing of the upper left corner.

The whole temple was in good condition from what they showed and was rather immense for being underground. I thought it was extremely interesting to see that this was the first segment in the show and was also the longest in the episode. For what was many people’s first introduction to Mithraism, I think it was an OK outing but did the show’s subject justice at showcasing the splendor of this underground temple.

PBS Atheist documentary airing update

May 5th, 2007 • 2 comments atheism, tv

Since my original post just a few days ago, an intrepid commenter found the grid detailing when the documentary will be shown on PBS affiliates around the nation. It will be showing on WXEL in West Palm Beach on May 12 from 9PM to 12AM.

I’ll be setting the DVR up to record this since it’s hard to find anywhere else. If you read the comments on Pharyngula, you’ll see that someone links to a website that supposedly is showing it now however, I cannot vouch for this.

ABC Atheist debate update!

May 3rd, 2007 • 3 comments atheism, christianity, debate, tv

Remember my post a few days ago about the death match between Atheists and Christians? Well, I just got word about the debate between the blasphemychallenge.com guys and Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. Here’s the official word from Mark Spence:

Thank you for requesting more information about the Atheist Debate
between “The Way of the Master ” co-hosts Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort and
the www.blasphemychallenge.com founders/representatives.

ABC just confirmed that the debate is going to be at Calvary Baptist
Church in New York City on Saturday, May 5, 2007 @ 7:30pm (EST).

The full debate will air on www.abcnews.com on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 @
2:00pm (EST).
The Nightline piece will air that same night at 11:35 p.m. (your local
time)

For more information please go to:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=3130360&page=1

Most Commonly asked questions:
1. Is it open to the public? No. ABC was very strict about this.
Sorry, no exceptions.
2. How does one get a Media Pass? Contact Andr...@abc.com
3. Is it ok to show up outside the church to support? Yes.

**Please note the preceding information may change without notice by
ABC.

Woohoo!! Now I know when to set my DVR to record. I can imagine that abcnews.com will be getting a bit more traffic than normal on Wednesday.

PBS to air three part documentary about Atheism

May 2nd, 2007 • 1 comment atheism, christianity, education, tv

My girlfriend linked me to an article about PBS airing a three-part Atheist documentary that’s being lambasted by America’s right wing. This is no surprise considering the documentary was very well received in England, whose non-theistic population is growing by the year. While not specifically an Atheist myself, I’m looking forward to this documentary produced by the BBC.

You can read the article for specifics so I don’t have to duplicate something I’ve already linked to. But I do love the following quote from some crazy fundie:

Janice Crouse, director of the Beverly LaHaye Institute for the conservative group Concerned Women for America, told Cybercast News Service that “airing the program gives credibility and cohesiveness to individuals who seek to undermine the beliefs and values on which democracy and the American dream are founded.”

Democracy is founded on monotheism and subserviency? I thought its foundation was laid in a polytheistic society that promoted social discussion and interaction versus that of bowing down to a sole leader, looking to them for all the answers. Man, I guess history has it all wrong! The “rule of the people, by the people” was really envisioned as “rule of the people, by a person”. I like the fact that this short documentary is “propaganistic” according to Crouse yet the numerous Christian-based television stations and radio shows aren’t even though they get to preach shove their views into your face without anyone saying a word.

Set your DVRs — or VCRs if you’re still using one — to record according to your local PBS schedule.