Theist Vs Atheist Debate: "Does God Not Exist?" (Part 3/3)

Uploaded with permission.

January 5th, 2003 at Islamic Institute of New York.

First Edition

Tawheed Institute

http://www.tawheed1.org


Read the transcript at http://www.madressa.org

Length: 2 hours 45 minutes

A historic debate between Hassanain Rajabali [Muslim] and Dan Barker [Atheist].

Moderated by Mohamed Athar Lila.

This is a series of events organized by the Tawheed Institute after the September 11 crisis with the aim to foster better understanding between people of different denominations.

Some Quotes:

"Another argument, against the existence of god of course, is the problem of evil: All you have to do is walk into any children's hospital - and you know there is no god. Children are in pain, they are suffering, their parents are desperately praying for god to protect them." - Dan Barker

"We're relative creatures, and that is how we understand things, and we can never have a conception of something that is bad, until we understand what is good. That reality, that co-existence is necessary in this world. If one wants to say that evil should not exist then the earth should not exist. You and I should not exist, trial should not exist, and exam should not exist. Rather we are in a system where we understand that evil is there." - Hassanain Rajabali

"Yes, I am under trial, if I could have stopped September 11, I would have but "God is not under trial." So it is irrelevent to for Him."
- Hassanain Rajabali

"No matter what they [the Atheists] thought of Hassanain's arguments, they all agree that he was pleasant and articulate. He shows a good face of Islam." -Dan Barker, after the debate

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• rajabali
• barker
• debate
• atheism
• atheist
• islam
• theist
• theism
• God
• Allah
• dialgue

[12InchesUnBuffed]

Does god exist or not exist? is a meaningless question. In order to proceed with a rational discussion, one must first provide a coherent definition of what is meant by 'god'. If that definition is unfalsifiable, then there can be a meaningful discussion. We can then proceed with the next question, does god exist or not exist?

Sadly, many people skips the first step and directly goes on to the second step. That's why theists and atheists usually end up having an endless circular discussion.

[JonasGrumby71]

Great job by Barker, and epic FAIL by the theist. All he does is keep making the assertion that God is absolute and limitless. You cannot assert something into existence.

[Mahdai]

Tired of the Hitler remarks. No, just because the majority of Germans didn't oppose the holocaust doesn't mean that their standpoint on morality was right, because -other- people got killed and hurt due to that, which just strengthens Dan Barker's argument: the base of morality is to not cause harm. If you cause harm to other people, you are immoral. Simple as that.

[Nietzschean1000]

“There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies?”

― Richard Dawkins

[Nietzschean1000]

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.”

― Richard Dawkins

[Nietzschean1000]

“Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.”

― Richard Dawkins

[Nietzschean1000]

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”

― Richard Dawkins

[JonasGrumby71]

@Spined1234, you are a really sick human being if you think any human being deserves eternal torture for what they think! And you seem to revel in the thought too, which is just your way to make yourself feel superior. Your statement embodies what I hate most about theists. You disguise your hatred with piety.

[MrMaverickOne]

this debate has increased my contempt for dogma for what it does to nice humans. this muslim guy needs to be told that that just by raising your voice doesn't make you right; his "arguments" totally messed up.

[afshinvf]

@Spined1234 it's funny how you fear what you love