Jacoby-Shermer Debate, 5/10

[This is Dr Jacoby's cross-examination of Dr Shermer.]

The debate between international Christian speaker Douglas Jacoby and agnostic and skeptic Michael Shermer took place Saturday June 23, the highlight of the 2007 International Apologetics Conference, sponsored by the Apologetics Research Society. The debate topic: Does God Exist?

Dr. Shermer is one of the three or four most famous atheist / agnostic scholars in the world, author of 12 books and President of the Skeptic Society. He has held dozens of debates, appeared on Oprah, 20/20, Dateline, Tom Snyder, Larry King Live and The History Channel. Dr. Jacoby, director of the Athens Institute of Ministry, has spoken in hundreds of cities in some 80 nations.

This exciting event was held before a packed house, with an overflow crowd watching close circuit monitors outside the venue. Kedron Jones (Board member of ARS) was moderator and affable host. Shermer and Jacoby both bring their best analytical skills to this debate. The interchange is lively, with both speakers willing to concede points made by their opponent. You will benefit greatly from weighing the arguments put forth. Douglas' clear and incisive arguments for the existence of God are persuasive. He argues from cosmology (both its creation and its complexity). and the unmistakable fact that moral absolutes are part of reality. Shermer makes the case that religions are socially constructed, historically dependent, and that the faith you adhere to and the god you believe in depend largely on when in history and where in the world you were born.

The two-hour debate is lively, engaging and instructional. You can watch each speaker's opening, rebuttal, rebuttal summary, and conclusion here at YouTube. For the entire debate in one DVD, however, including the 40+ minute Q&A session, please visit www.douglasjacoby.com. The Skeptics Society website is www.skeptic.com.

To post further comments, please visit Jacoby's forum at www.jacobyblogs.com.

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• jacoby
• shermer
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• god
• exist
• evidences
• apologetics

[robotaholic]

I loved it when Shermer said "I have the humility to say I Don't Know" - that was music to my ears- I'm tired of so many religious people with supposed "answers" when they don't have ANY honest answers. Shermer was refreshing and honest.

[torin006]

You believe you know for certain. Knowing is philosophically impossible. That's why science deals in theory and not Truth. There is no evidence against elves. It does not make them existence. Atheism is the lack of belief. You are positing the positive statement: God exists. We are not convinced. You have the same evidence (or less even) as the lochness monster or bigfoot or UFO's or invisible mice in my attic. The default position should be disbelief, not belief. Why do you believe?

[1empathy]

Jacoby is like all intelligent theists, they argue for a deist god and tack their religion on as an afterthought.

[dwheel39]

@Gazdo01 haha...okay, forgive my assumption. Catholic, wow, okay..so then you do doubt the evidence that points to intelligence? Such as, complexity of life, fine tuning of the cosmos for life to exist, DNA information or the order of the universe as a whole? Would you agree that these point to an intelligence outside of ourselves? I'm interested in your opinions.

[Gazdo01]

@dwheel39 P.S.: I'm a practicing Catholic...

[dwheel39]

@Gazdo01 Okay.. now...please please reread what you just wrote. Do you see how the "appeal to ignorance" applies to your lack of belief in God? You cant conceive or understand such a Being so therefore He doesn't exist. And no, i am not appealing to ignorance. I'm appealing to the wealth of evidence that God does indeed exist. Atheists use reason and rationality to argue and prove that the source for their rationality is IRRATIONAL. And Dawkins says theists are "delusional"??? :)

[Gazdo01]

@dwheel39 You are a living example of someone doing the "appeal to ignorance" fallacy. Because you can't conceive it, you automatically conclude it is impossible. Evolution, for example, shows how complexity can immerge through random mutations and natural selection.

"EVERYTHING in our experience points to INTELLIGENCE"

I would argue that it points to WHAT SEEMS LIKE intelligence. But then again, we might be fooled into thinking this way.

"but to say [...] is silly" argumentum ad ignorantiam

[dwheel39]

@robotaholic lol...okay, so if he "doesn't know" then why does he make his living arguing and trying to refute those who think they DO know? Unless one knows something he's not in a position to correct and should remain silent. Also, think about it, how does one get virtues like humility when the atheistic picture is survival of the fittest through natural selection. How does one get ANY virtues at all in a purely random materialistic world? You don't get "shoulds" from "is" :)

[dwheel39]

@Gazdo01 . . as do atheists...FAITH. But WHICH "faith" is more REASONABLE? How can a view that says order comes from chaos, something comes from nothing and conscious beings came about by some random process of natural selection via mutations,..how can THIS be rational? This is absurd. EVERYTHING in our experience points to INTELLIGENCE. We may squabble over the identity of this being but to say no intelligence brought about ALL intelligence is silly

[dwheel39]

Why aren't "skeptics" like Shermer, who arrogantly ridicule beliefs they don't understand, critical of their OWN beliefs? In these debates i hear so much of "psychological" reasons why people are religious, but this seems to be said in order to dance around the issue. There can be just as many psychological reasons why Shermer is an "agnostic" or whatever he is. What's good for the "delusional" goose is good for the delusional gander :) Atheists seem quite deluded to me.

[dwheel39]

@hansjaeger1 hmmmmm...and you know there is no afterlife HOW? Where is your "empirical evidence" that consciousness ends in death when there is great wealth of evidence that it doesn't? Too much personal testimony and unexplained phenomenon (like people born blind describing what their family was doing across town while they were diagnosed as clinically dead in a hospital). You don't even know what consciousness is so how can the belief be absurd?

[Gazdo01]

@robotaholic I too agree largely with Shermer... I have a strong scientific background and I do believe in God...

But who cares what I BELIEVE is true? I never said is WAS true. Neither did I impose my view on others. Don't you understand the concept of FAITH? You're wrong if you think religious people think they KNOW. There might be religious nuts who think so, but that's not the point. We have FAITH, that's all.