Richard Dawkins, Rowan Williams, Anthony Kenny: "Human Beings & Ultimate Origin" Debate

Debate at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, February 23rd 2012 with Prof Richard Dawkins, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and Philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny.

For further analysis of Dawkins' arguments in The God Delusion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP9CwD...

For Dawkins' discussion with Sam Harris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm2Jrr...

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[Reuben Falconer]

I am not so sure.

It is possible that one cause can merge with something else. If the beginning of our universe was not monocausal but arose from the coalescence of many causes and components, at what stage in time do you identify its origin? This issue was at the heart of the topic but it was not addressed.

[Reuben Falconer]

'Spirituality' is a sort of proxy word and very imprecise. Ask 10 people in a room what it means annd they'll give you 10 different answers. They will express vagueness and have their doubts, which is definitely what a computer can't do. A computer is like a person who's been got at by propaganda and can only take that one view.

[Reuben Falconer]

Time is a dimension. How do you date a dimension? From one perspective it could even be seen as half a dimension (if conceived of as linear and you only get to move in one direction i.e. forwards). 

[TheAnointedRockstar]

I'm not assuming time had an origin, before we go into it we need to dfine things because if we have different definitions then we have no chance at getting to the truth. Define time as you know it. Also apart from defining time, do you accept time had a beggining?

[Reuben Falconer]

That is assuming Time had an origin.

[TheAnointedRockstar]

Origin would need to be at the start of time.

[Ella Stuart]

It didn't work.Both debaters went astray. Dawkins said there was a medical condition where humans reverted to chimpanzees. Untrue. Un-Darwinian. Humans are not genetically descended from chimps.

Archbishop's God, a crossbreed between Love and Mathematics, gets his ethics and sums wrong so often, I wouldn't want him for my postman let alone a banker.

[P Bird]

Kenny is a true gent of the old school. Yes, he probably still writes with cuttlefish ink on parchment using a quill pen since he doesn't seem to know what a biro is for. Yet he has a lucid mind expressing himself with great clarity. I'd guess his remarks about belief in logic and objective truth are admonitions to Dawkins and Williams to keep it straight-NOT generalizations about The Ultimate Origins of anything.

[Ella Stuart]

0:15.0. Kenny's remark "We all believe in logic" is very presumptuous. Generally speaking belief in logic can't help us understand the ultimate origins of anything, living or non-living.That's why they are scratching around at CERN. You have to believe intuitively in whatever suits you and get on with life.

[dna598]

Host needs to bugger off