catholicsphere

UPDATE(5/10/07): After watching Nightline last night, I’m wondering if I gave C&C a fair shake based on the first part of the debate. There were points where the atheists, both on stage and in the audience, became noticeably agitated. In a debate, that’s typically a sign that you are not confident in your position. We’ll see what the rest of the debate looks like when it “airs” today at ABCNews.com. Also, I have to admit that Cameron seemed to do better in the debate than Comfort.

Now that I have a little more time, I wanted to provide an assessment that has some more detail.

Now, you can view the debate for yourself. The first part debuted today, the rest will appear tomorrow, and a shorter segment will appear on Nightline tonite. Oh, and Kirk Cameron will be on The O’Reilly Factor tonite at 8pm and 11pm ET.

Responding to a challenge of Rational Response Squad, an atheist group who have made it their mission to bring an end to Christianity, Christian evangelists Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron contacted ABC News to debate the existence of God “without appealing to the Bible or faith”. Many people were interested in this debate, and I’m certain there were plenty of those who wanted to see exactly how this would be done.

The unfortunate fact of the debate was the Ray Comfort essentially conceded the debate to the atheists after slightly more than 5 minutes. Initially, Comfort used arguments for a Creator. He then appealed to the Bible and then to faith in his subsequent points. Comfort asked people to search their conscience and their experiences as personal proof that God exists.

At the conclusion of his comments, the Rational Responders were given an opportunity for rebuttal. In all honesty, they didn’t have to say much of anything at all. Comfort and Cameron had already lost by appealing to the Bible and faith. Brian “Sapient” (not his real last name because of fear of death threats he’s received in the past) quickly pointed this out. He and partner, Kelly, I believe his wife, took the remainder of their time to raise their objections to the existence of God.

They took some cheap shots and opportunities to belittle Christians. In fact, they probably hurt themselves a bit by their behavior. Those not familiar with typical “mainstream” debate might be quite disturbed by their behavior; but such can be expected, though, by those of lower education. Had Brian and Kelly refrained from, in effect, somewhat childish behavior, they probably would have made a better impression and helped their cause.

All in all, I feel confident that no one would be swayed by the debate. My concern is not with the way that Comfort and Cameron debated these atheists. Rather, it is the content that unfortunately did Christians no favors with the “freethinkers” of the world.

I’ll check in with an assessment of part II after it “airs” tomorrow.

[tags]atheist, debate, kirk cameron, ray comfort, way of the master, rational response squad, abc, nightline, o’reilly, christian, catholicsphere, bible, faith, apologetics[/tags]