John Loftus and Randal Rauser have recently collaborated on a collection of mini-debates about whether God exists and why it matters. God or Godless? has been characterized by its authors as “a rather immodest attempt to address all that is lacking in the standard discussions.” Here is how they describe their writing process:
To kick things off, each of us chose ten debate statements in which the one who made the choice argued the affirmative while leaving the opponent scrambling to establish a case for the negative. I (Randal the Christian) seek through these debates to make a case for going with God, while I (John the atheist) aim to make the case for going Godless. With that basic formula in mind, we then tailored our twenty exchanges to address the weaknesses in the standard debates. First, we’ve cut down the length. Forget hours of ponderous argument, tortured rebuttal, and meticulous cross-examination: in each of our debates we were restricted to opening statements of about 800 words, rebuttals of about 150 words, and closing statements of a meager 50 words. As a result we managed to touch on all the main issues on the topic in question in a breezy debate that can be read in about twenty minutes. Second, we bypassed most of the traditional questions and topics to make way for some new angles and issues. And finally, so far as the formalism of academic discourse is concerned, let’s just say that we weren’t wearing neckties when we wrote this book. We purposely sought to keep the mood light, and we left the official timekeeper at home.
Having watched and reviewed quite a few full-length atheist debates, I can say with some confidence that they do get more than a little repetitive in terms of subject matter, initial arguments, and usual counterarguments. It is greatly refreshing, therefore, to see a deliberately expanded set of atheist/theist debate topics.
Randal affirms the following ten propositions:
- If There Is No God, Then Life Has No Meaning
- Is No God, Then Everything Is Permitted
- Science Is No Substitute for Religion
- God Is the Best Explanation of the Whole Shebang
- If There Is No God, Then We Don’t Know Anything
- Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, but Only if God Exists
- Everybody Has Faith
- God Is Found in the Majesty of the Hallelujah Chorus
- God Best Explains the Miracles in People’s Lives
- Jesus Was Resurrected, So Who Do You Think Raised Him?
John affirms the following ten propositions:
- The Biblical Concept of God Evolved from Polytheism to Monotheism
- The Biblical God Required Child Sacrifices for His Pleasure
- The Biblical God Commanded Genocide
- The Biblical God Does Not Care Much about Slaves
- The Biblical God Does Not Care Much about Women
- The Biblical God Does Not Care Much about Animals
- The Biblical God Is Ignorant about Science
- The Biblical God Is Ignorant about the Future
- The Biblical God Is an Incompetent Creator
- The Biblical God Is an Incompetent Redeemer
If you find this sort of subject matter stimulating, as I do, you should know that the Kindle book is available for free, today only. Share and enjoy!
