The Wit of Dr. Craig - Part 12 "No preference for a 'wahhabi' atheist"

[deanneugebauer]

"Christopher Hitchens tries to corner Dr. William Lane Craig about whether he would prefer him to be a wahabi Muslim or an atheist."

Was the smerk on his face not subtle enough to spot the humor in the question?

[12Ominous]

Love both these guys.

[ytfmichaelxu]

Of course! lol

[holdenc96]

I am definitely not used to Christopher Hitchens being spanked in a debate. Wow...he really got spanked...

[Rymaldub]

Hitchens had pretty bad questions, haha aw well, people make mistakes.

[hellavadeal]

That was a dumb question. Sense both would be wrong. Which is best being wrong one way or another? Being wrong is still being wrong.

[republicanschefers]

I love Christopher.... that was a good point...

[MarvinsKitchen]

verry funny video, keep up the good work Dr Craig

[SavedFollower15]

WHERE WAS HE GOING WITH THAT?!?!?! O.o

[kubrox91]

Ah... I'm going to miss Christopher Hitchens. He was a phenomenal writer and the only "new" atheist that I respected.

[loremdolorfu]

Of all the atheists, Hitchens was the most sporting and decent of the bunch. Dr. Craig's sincerity always shines. Thanks for the upload.

[compaqfp7317]

OWNING!

[Taurion4467]

wish craig just said all of them

[kubrox91]

funny.

[MathaelTheDestroyer]

I love Christopher Hitchens, and I have a lot of respect for Dr. Craig. I don't know why people feel the need to defend either person so vehemently. They're both intelligent, well educated, articulate debaters. I don't think either of them was significantly better than the other. You have to give respect where it's due.

[hawklanzs]

'Wahhabi baby' sounds like a middleastern dish Hahahahahahaha

[shariotoflove]

@hawklanzs no it doesnt...

[Obinna1]

LOL.. I guess when Hitchens asked this question, he expected Dr Craig to reply that he would choose "baby hitchens" over "wahabbi baby".

Why did u have to hurt Hitchens' feelings like this, Dr Craig?

[Purushadasa]

The fact that there are valueless, counterfeit religions (such as atheism) shows that there must be true religions of great value, for no counterfeiter would ever attempt to counterfeit an item of no value. In fact, the only motivation for producing counterfeits of any type is the existence of the genuine article with real value.

This principle applies to currency, to religion, and to God.

[andymc24]

@Purushadasa not true at all; atheism is not a religion, and therefore not a counterfeit version of anything you might believe. Atheism is just not believing. Nobody ever mentioned the "ooixckjxc1287sgvougxk god of youtube" - your lack of belief in him doesn't make your non-belief some sort of counterfeit, you just don't believe. Same way that not collecting stamps isn't a hobby.

[robmarcreed]

How was that witty?

[drcraigvideos]

robmarcreed: By the fact that Craig has no preference for Hitchens. Try watching the video again. It's not even 90 seconds long.

[Birdieupon]

I'm still a little troubled myself as to where the joke lies here. Why did they start laughing? Purely at the image of Hitchens as a fat baby?

[lucasdasilvamaria]

No, because Hitchens was trying to nail Craig with small talk as if he was a naive stuttering college student.

[empreme]

@Birdieupon They're probably laughing at Hitchens squandering his time away with nonsense.

[endofscene]

@drcraigvideos I don't think it was witty. Hitchens posed a valid question. He was saying: which is worse for the world in Dr Craig's mind-being a Muslim or being an atheist?

[thetornado]

agreed...

[shariotoflove]

@robmarcreed Hitchens was expecting Craig to lick his arse and unite against Islam...but Craig stood by his guns and made the atheist look no different to a Wahhabi.

[LordMalice6d9]

I never really was a big fan of Hitchens.

To me his irrational stance saying that ALL religion is poison is ridiculus to me.

[pobanmanu]

Hitchens is great. How he enligtens everyone.

[cdm1972]

He is enjoyable to listen to whether you disagree or not. He approaches debate in the right spirit, at least.

[MiracleOfRealism]

Drcraigvideos, you chopped off the hilarious response of Hitchens. You should slip that in another video, it really adds to it :)

[jessothebody]

since when was laughing considered wit

[drcraigvideos]

jessothebody: It's the wittiness that makes people laugh. I mean, duh! Please, try to think harder next time.

[ronhudsonjr]

while i think craig does have extreme wit and intelligence, hitchens basically set himself up to look stupid here. he even looks embarassed when asking "do you prefer it was a wahabi baby or me?"

its a poorly worded question.

[Powenn]

LOL I don't know if Hitchens was trying to make the audience laugh but he sure did trip over his tongue on that one.

[NoMereRanger303]

That was pretty funny. I kind of feel bad for Hitchens though, he actually looked kind of embarrassed. But man - did he fumble that question.

[fhowchief]

By the way, I note that you are screening these comments, Mr. drcraigvideos, so I assume you are there. With that in mind, I'd like to mention something to you ...

Although I don't blame you for maintaining standards of discussion on your channel, it makes it very difficult to communicate with you as your comments section is deactivated and PMs can't be sent by "non-friends".

I just wanted to say that, as a long-time subscriber, I appreciate your channel and am grateful for your efforts.

FAX

[babystinky]

hitchens didn't do very well in that debate, but his rhetoric still speaks to young people who are disillusioned with the church or religion. this type of argument while weak in essense is strong for the young. dawkins,hitchens.harris is the face of the new atheists and the emotional appeal will be their 'card.'

[fhowchief]

It's important to remember, however, that there have been "atheists" (in one form or another) since the dawn of time. Although occasionally puzzling and often frustrating, they are always temporal.

It's the most positive aspect of these debates, to my mind. That is, they provide opportunities for young people to assess the validity of the arguments on both sides. Better, I think, than simply accepting the dogma du jour based merely on the currently popular proponent's volume and exposure.

FAX

[PraetorDrew]

Hitchens has pulled this trick pretty successfully on a lot of people, but it is clear that Craig did his homework and watched those debates, and hence, did not fall for it.

[BeefEraser15]

Hitchens is a great writer and he's very witty and quick, but when it comes to religion and philosophy, he just fails. He revives old arguments with emotional appeals and lots of vacuous rhetoric. I was glad to see Dr. Craig call him on his irrationality all throughout this debate and try to force him into having a serious discussion rather than a religion-bashing session...quite refreshing to have an intelligent, rational Christian defending the faith rather than someone like, say, Ray Comfort.

[fhowchief]

It seems as though there is a substantial market for atheistic material. Hitchens' success is evidential to that hypothesis, at any rate. Interestingly, the objective quality of his literature in terms of provable substance and philosophic cogency is questionable. It raises an interesting question as to why the public is so fascinated by atheism regardless of the credibility of the writer and/or his arguments.

Perhaps people, at large, find it easier to believe in a Grifter than God?

FAX

[ivanmikhailov]

How is Hitchens irrational when it comes to religion? It seems that he always brings up the rational points when debating religion with theists. I think the point behind his poorly worded question is clear: believers are responsible for more violence in the world than non-believers.

[fhowchief]

Regardless of which of these men's views one prefers, a thoughtful, rational and lucid person has to admit that Hitchens's vocation is that of a snake oil salesman ... rather, the seller of books on the subject of how to make snake oil ... sort of a marketing expert on Snake Oil Recipes For Dummies handbooks.

On the other hand, at least Craig holds authentic, sincere beliefs and possesses the intelligence necessary to construct compelling arguments in support of those beliefs.

Craig wins.

FAX

[diuryl]

hitchens was dominated.

though he did do a LITTLE better than usual.

[kockgunner]

I love Dr. Craig and his debates. He's so cool and funny.

[sniped101]

@kockgunner im still waiting for someone to prove god exists...

[drcraigvideos]

@sniped101 Maybe if you start unplugging your ears with your fingers you'll actually hear and know the arguments.

[TheHonestTheist]

Prime example of a red herring, that question had absolutely nothing to do with the debate at hand.

[TNROLM]

He pulled the same question at the Turek/Hitchens Debate last April on "Theism/Atheism: Which Better Explains Reality?"

I was there, I even have a post-debate video on my page. Check it out. It's Called "TCNJ Turek is confronted by a Skeptic"

[Vanmeter815]

Somebody needs to upload that debate.

[GPLeague]

That's a lesser of two evils question. Kind of pointless.

[DeeperRootsProject]

That was less Craig being funny and more Hitchens making a bit of an idiot of himself. :/

[NickPolovino]

I concur, Hitchens really did make a fool of himself, and Craig didn't have to do too much to amplify it.

[AbdielAbiram]

There are a lot of videos that can be made off that debate, because Craig was just dominating.

[Bartlolomew]

Sounds like it was a great debate! Pity I haven't seen it :(

[diuryl]

an atheist called TexAtheist has it somewhere here on youtube.

[jib1000]

@AbdielAbiram LOL Craig dominated ignorance in this debate, thats about it.

[Gentle135]

Hitchens is so dumb. The guy is a walking joke. More so than Dawkins.

[msb0000]

Craig > Hitchens

[Phillysoul11]

lol pwn

[romanempiresucks]

first

[KryptikMuzikMadnezz]

LOL!

[SBRslacker00]

Dr. Craig is cool.

It's good to see that he won't back down to anyone, including atheist #1 Christopher Hitchens. I can't wait to watch the rest of this debate.