Day: November 18, 2010

A lack of reviews of the Hitchens vs Dembski debate

~ Jeremy ~ 4 Comments

This morning, a bald Christopher Hitchens debated Dr. William Dembski at a Christian school in Texas. I wrote a little about it here.

Without re-watching the debate, I can’t give a full review. I listened to it in the background while I was working, so I took very few notes.

But I wanted to point out that I haven’t seen any reviews online. This is troublesome. Did no one else watch it? Did no one else respond?

At the same time, people are bombarding Le Café looking for the debate. Or they are possibly looking for responses.

Let me reiterate, Hitchens trounced Dembski. Dembski bumbled and mumbled his way through his responses and I would have felt badly for him if he weren’t such a slimy liar advocating creationism and  “Intelligent Design.”

***

The one thing I wanted to point out was the end of the debate. The moderator invited some guy on stage to deliver a closing prayer.
This guy stood up in on stage, and he gave a weepy thanks to Dembski and Hitchens for the debate. He said something to the effect of, “As I sat in the audience confused by both debaters, and as I pondered all my research on the debate between atheism and belief, I know that since 1970, I’ve been sure that Christianity is all I need.”

Wait, what?

He was confused, but he’s sure? He sat there and the information caused some confusion, and yet he stood in front of the audience and said, “I’m certain Christianity is right.”

This is what I don’t get. You can’t be confused and sure. If you have confusion, there is an absence of certainty.

This is what gets me about belief. People can hold two opposing ideas and continue to be positive about one way. They can be absolutely positively certain that Christianity is correct despite having a curiosity that maybe if they delved deeper, they might not believe what they currently believe.

This guy walked into the debate sure. He left confused. But despite confusion, he was still sure.

WHAT!

That is the definition of Christianity. Even Dembski sat on stage — ruffled by Hitchens kicking his ass — saying he wasn’t sure about the concept of hell, but he was sure about the concept of god, his goodness, Jesus’ forgiveness, and that Intelligent Design IS NOT connected to Christianity.

So finally the guy who was supposed to pray prayed. And when he prayed he said (not exact), “Dear god, despite the fact that I’m confused, I know you’re the god that I should worship … blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.”

Seriously.

It was that lame.

If you’re a Christian, and you’re confused, own up. Pick up your toys, get out of your crib, straighten your bib and own up. It’s okay to be confused and move forward with uncertainty.

To be fair, if you’re an atheist, and you’re confused, own the fuck up and be confused.

I, for one, was not confused.

Hitchens trounced Dembski. Dembski should only fall asleep tonight after a cocktail or two, because no back rub from any spouse should alleviate the pain of getting demolished that badly.

Dembski is a failure for his cause.

That’s for certain.

Talulah’s small victories

~ Jeremy ~ 3 Comments

Lately Talulah has been fetching really well. Some days I am in a rush, so I take her to a patch of grass just behind our condo and throw her big green rubber bone with the initials “JW” on it. She loves that bone. Winks!

I’ve been training her to bring the bone all the way to me. If she drops it before she gets to where I’m standing, I make her pick it up and bring it all the way to that spot. Once she arrives, I give her HUGE praise. My neighbors must think I’m nuts.

Tonight, I got home from a basketball game. Before I got home, I called Tina and said, “Let Talulah out back and throw me her bone.” We live on the third floor and I thought I would save a second.

Talulah and I played fetch for 20 minutes. When she starts laying down on her bone, she’s done.

We started to go upstairs, and when we reached the first landing, her bone wasn’t in her mouth. I said, “Where’s your bone? Where is it? Where’s you bone?” She looked up at me. She looked around, and she had left it downstairs by the car. She ran down the stairs, retrieved the bone, and brought it up all three flights.

My heart melted all over the deck.

This is the equivalent of a proud parent telling you an inane story about their child taking a dump in her diaper. I get that.

What can I say? Lou dog kicks your dog story’s ass.

A cynical distraction

~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m tied up today. But I don’t want you to be bored to tears because my blood pressure is up and deadlines are looming.

If you aren’t already an avid Cynical C reader, you should be. And if you need a reason why, Cynical Chris’ blog is posting lots of updates about the current TSA bumblefuckclusterbomb.

Here’s the latest, but if you go back through a few older post clicks, the posts he makes about the TSA are simply snippets from larger articles.

If you care about who touches your privates in public, you’ll care about this atrocity happening in airports. If you care about who touches your children, nieces and nephews, and the children of your loved ones, you will be even more inclined to give a hoot.

So go already. I’m too busy for you anyway!

If you can, listen and/or watch the Hitchens Dembski debate on right now

~ Jeremy ~ 1 Comment

I have a busy day, but I put on this morning’s debate between Christopher Hitchens and William Dembski happening right now online. Listen here. It just started at 9 a.m. Central.

 

***UPDATE***

I have this debate on in the background. Hitchens is mauling Dembski. Dembski is a bumbling maniac without any comprehension of decent debate.

Dembski is backtracking and stepping all over his own arguments. He just said, “Hell? I’m not comfortable with that.”

Dembski is trying to be apologetic for Christianity’s downfalls to encourage Hitchens to consider Christianity. Hitchens has established very well and quite simply, that god would have much to account for if he existed. Hitch is using the bible to demolish Dembski’s arguments, and that’s causing Dembski to backtrack and bumble about nonsense.

That’s the thing. Hitchens is frank, curt, to the point. Dembski attempts to use confusion methods of rambling about evolution. Dembski’s methods don’t work.

I am not afraid to ram an atheist in debate. Perhaps you think I’m bowing to Hitchens. Dembski could learn much from Dinesh D’Souza, whom I don’t agree with, but at least D’Souza shows up for the debate. Dembski seems to be in bed still.

Crawl out of your baby chair, guy. We’re all waiting.

One other thing that bothers me is Hitchens has not once said, “You can find this answer in my book which is on sale in the back.” Dr. Dembski used the line at least three times that I could count.

Hitchens has mauled Dembski. Dembski has brought absolutely nothing to this “debate.” How lame.