William Lane Craig wins on points, and substance

I cruised along to the debate between Christian philosopher Bill Craig and NZ Rationalists' Professor Bill Cooke tonight.

The first surprise was finding the lecture theatre empty, with a note advising a venue change because the room wasn't big enough.

The second surprise was getting to the new lecture theatre, and only just being able to squeeze through the door and finding standing room only. You literally could not move, and the body heat in the upper reaches was incredible.

In front of me, hundreds had crammed into the theatre hoping to hear the clash of ideas.

While Craig kicked off with a 20 minute dissertation offering five logical proofs for the existence of God, behind me Auckland University security guards were threatening to shut down the theatre because the overcrowding was a "fire hazard".

After Bill Cooke's less than convincing response (basically, avoid the main arguments at all costs and obfuscate off on tangents), the debate was interrupted with an announcement that so heavy was the public demand to attend this debate that three lecture theatres had now been filled and one more was left to absorb all the overcrowding from the main auditorium – the other theatres were all taking a live video link of proceedings.

By my estimate, somewhere between 700 and 1000 people turned up for the event on a showery Auckland evening.

The debate will feature in the next Investigate.

Comments

[God]

Ian, you are a noob

[HORansome]

As someone who was also at the debate I will agree that Craig won the debate, but mostly because Bill Cook wasn't very good. Craig's arguments were unsophisticated, lacking substance, (and having heard him in his professional capacity as a philosopher I know he knows better) and designed to appeal to the masses. Cook, who you'd think would know a little basic stats and cosmology, just wasn't in Craig's league when it came to presenting ideas. A great shame, really.

[ropata]

I would have loved to see G.K. Chesterton debate Bertrand Russell or George Bernard Shaw

[CN]

The whole Craig tour is detailed on: http://www.christiannews.co.nz/

I am really appreciative of Bill Cooke for fronting for the debate. He is a brave guy as Craig is the master of many many debates. Good on the Bills!!! I hope the Palmerston North debate goes well for you both too!

[CN]

A review of the Auckland debate:

http://mandmandmandm.blogspot.com/2008/06/battle-of-bills-review-of-craig-cooke.html

[Madeleine]

A video of the Auckland debate is available on MandM
http://mandmandmandm.blogspot.com/

[Brian]

Full MP3 Audio of the William Lane Craig vs Bill Cooke debate can be found here.