A live debate is coming up at 6:45 GMT…I think that means in about half an hour. The topic is one that irritates me greatly: "Atheism is the New Fundamentalism". Arguing for the motion is Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford, and Charles Moore. former editor of the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. I know nothing about either of them. Against the motion, the godless have once again fielded their A team: Richard Dawkins and AC Grayling.
I forecast another rout in favor of the heathenish barbarians with prestigious academic appointments.
It will be streamed live at the intelligence2 site.
People are live-twittering the debate, too — look for the hashtag #iq2atheism.
The final vote in this debate was against the motion, "Atheism is the new fundamentalism," by 1070 votes to 363. That's just the audience in attendance; the online vote was even more lopsided, 877 to 35.
My overall opinion was that Grayling was humane, gentle, and thoughtful, and spoke well for humanism. Dawkins provided a good sharp edge with cogent criticisms of the ideas of the theists. He did not stoop to the kinds of ad hominem the theists engaged in in this debate.
On the theist side, Harries was dithering and only brought up tired old claims about atheism…he also got slapped down good when he claimed Dawkins never admitted to any doubt in any of his books, and Dawkins simply cited the title of chapter 4 of The God Delusion: "Why there almost certainly is no god." Moore was awful, simply a rabid little shitstain. I think he lost the debate right right at the beginning when he made up that analogy of science being like a narrow beam spotlight in a prison camp, with Dawkins as the commandant ordering the prisoners to be shot. He was a genuinely despicable little freak.
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