Friday, January 19, 2007

Sam Harris v. God, Round 2

Evangelical Atheist Sam Harris is again blog-debating the existence of God. This time he's taking on Andrew Sullivan in a debate hosted on BeliefNet. Sullivan thus far is a stronger opponent than Dennis Prager who Harris schooled. The Prager dialogue was supposedly about "Why Are Atheists so Angry?" and this one with Sullivan is titled "God Is Not a Moderate," but they seem to devolve quickly into the basic argument over the existence of God.

Since that debate is fairly impossible to resolve, these things take on a sporting quality, like the Monty Python sketch in which contestents wrestle over the question and we are later informed by a dulcet-toned faux-BBC announcer that "God exists, by a final tally of 3 falls to 2." I'm not a big fan of Harris's overall project, but it sure was good to watch him carve up the frankly bigotted Prager.

I've been watching the anti-religious crusade of Harris and fellow traveler Richard Dawkins for some time. I have thoughts, but tomorrow there's a loooong meeting in Columbus about that thing I haven't been blogging, so God will have to wait. Until then, Harris just threw his Old Testament left jab. Lets see if Sullivan handles it better than Prager who pretty much walked into it.

1 comments:

Village Green said...

Hey Pho -- there are no higher powers, but I look forward to reading your response to Sam Harris.

No matter what you believe, you must admit that Harris and Dawkins are infinitely preferable as atheist spokespeople to the late and unlamented Maddy O"Hair.