Dan Debates

Does the Triune God Live?

University of Delaware

Dear Internet Infidels,

My debate with Doug Wilson Tuesday night at the University of Delaware was
very successful. 500 - 600 people, maybe 100 of them were
atheists/agnostics. Many were bussed in from Maryland churches (including
some with children), and many were University students.

The atheists and agnostics in the audience told me that I won the debate
handily. Wilson stuck to his Transcendental Argument, and I was prepared.

Thanks to the Internet for resources such as Martin's TANG and other
articles. Michael Martin's refutation of TAG was extremely helpful in
giving me the jump on Wilson.

I got Wilson to contradict himself blatantly a number of times during cross
examination, and his attempts to "weasel" out of them were pathetic
(although there were many "amens" from the audience as he did this).

But I was totally shocked by Wilson's attitude regarding morality. TOTALLY
shocked.

I hammered on him with numerous examples of cruelty committed or commanded
by the God of the bible, and by Jesus. Instead of denying the cruelty, or
claiming that I was misinterpreting the bible, Wilson AGREED that the god
of the bible was cruel.

When I asked him if this cruelty was good, he said yes! If God says it is
good, then it is good.

He agreed that Jesus encouraged the beating of slaves (Luke 12:47), and
that this was a good teaching.

He agreed that God said "Happy shall be he that taketh and dasheth thy
little ones against the stones" (Psalm 137), and that it was a morally
correct thing to throw little babies against the rocks  --  because God
said so. Christians should derive happiness from God's cruelty.

And so on. I'm not kidding.

You'll have to see the whole debate to see how it went. They will be
sending me an audio and a video cassette that we are free to distribute.
(Well, they PROMISE to send it  --  but they are Christians, so I'll
believe it when I see it.)

Anyway, I feel pretty high about the debate and wanted to share it. Many of
the Internet Infidels were very helpful during my preparation, and I am
appreciative of that.

Audio: http://ffrf.org/uploads/files/wilson-barker-debate.mp3