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The greatest debates

Nimos

Well-Known Member
What was wondering if people here have a favorite debate that they would like to share?

To me I think the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham tops it.


If anyone have seen it, what is your take on it in general?

(This is not meant as an post to discuss specific arguments in the debate, unless someone have something that they think is important to mention.)
 

Jose Fly

Fisker of men
What was wondering if people here have a favorite debate that they would like to share?
I can't think of any debates, but for whatever reason your request put me in mind of Neil deGrasse Tyson's lecture where he uses historical examples to caution fellow scientists against being too quick to declare things to be unsolvable.


To me I think the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham tops it.


If anyone have seen it, what is your take on it in general?
Kind of a mixed bag. From a purely debating/scoring/winner/loser standpoint I thought Nye mopped the floor with Ham (sounds weird if you say it out loud ;)). But from a larger perspective, Ham got want he really wanted, i.e., publicity resulting in increased contributions, which likely gave AiG enough funds to build the "Ark Park". Nye got a lot of heat from the scientific community for that.
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
The greatest debate of all time was, of course, this one:

2e9ebb6d7cf98a9d0de7c3907930747f.jpg
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
What was wondering if people here have a favorite debate that they would like to share?

To me I think the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham tops it.


If anyone have seen it, what is your take on it in general?

(This is not meant as an post to discuss specific arguments in the debate, unless someone have something that they think is important to mention.)
One of my favorites that's related would be Aaron Ra vs Kent hovind.

All the bags of popcorn I went through listening to it with sheer glee as 'dr' Kent Hovind flusters through just about every aspect of the debate!

Actually thanks to Aaron Ra in debating Hovind, I learned a lot about cladistics that I didn't know before.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
One of my favorites that's related would be Aaron Ra vs Kent hovind.

All the bags of popcorn I went through listening to it with sheer glee as 'dr' Kent Hovind flusters through just about every aspect of the debate!

Actually thanks to Aaron Ra in debating Hovind, I learned a lot about cladistics that I didn't know before.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
What was wondering if people here have a favorite debate that they would like to share?

To me I think the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham tops it.
The debate wasn't that memorable. (In fact, I already forgot what it was about.) But Bill nailed it in the Q&A:
would-change-your-mini-nothing-evidence-bill-nye-is-my-10660020.png


One of my favourite debates was:

The RCC didn't send their best debaters but anyone would have looked bad against Fry/the Hitch.
What I like especially about the format of the debate is that they take a vote (before and after) from the audience. So there is no arguing about who won.
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
I can't think of any debates, but for whatever reason your request put me in mind of Neil deGrasse Tyson's lecture where he uses historical examples to caution fellow scientists against being too quick to declare things to be unsolvable.
Anything with Neil deGrasse Tyson is good, I think. He is in my opinion the best communicator of science that there is and always present his things in a very respectful way.
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
One of my favourite debates was:

The RCC didn't send their best debaters but anyone would have looked bad against Fry/the Hitch.
What I like especially about the format of the debate is that they take a vote (before and after) from the audience. So there is no arguing about who won.
Ditto this, although I also agree with your observation that the RCC were at a bit of an unfair disadvantage considering the pedigree of their opponents in debates. Archbishop Onaiyekan is a great public speaker, but fairly inexperienced in debates; while Ann Widdecombe is a politician, but has extremely low charm and public appeal. By comparison, Hitchens is obviously an expert orator able to cram a book's worth of meaning into a single sentence; and Stephen Fry is just one of the most likeable and charming people in the country.

It was still a very gratifying victory for Fry and Hitchens, though.
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
The greatest debates

Did any of them got convinced and converted to the other side, please?

Regards
I won't spoil it for you, but Ken Ham did give Bill Nye a tour of the creation museum the next day. And to be honest I think its difficult for them to hide how much they enjoy each others company, such a warm and friendly tone and they pretty much agree on everything :D

 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
The debate wasn't that memorable. (In fact, I already forgot what it was about.) But Bill nailed it in the Q&A:
would-change-your-mini-nothing-evidence-bill-nye-is-my-10660020.png


One of my favourite debates was:

The RCC didn't send their best debaters but anyone would have looked bad against Fry/the Hitch.
What I like especially about the format of the debate is that they take a vote (before and after) from the audience. So there is no arguing about who won.
I kinda like that mechanic of audience voting. Now if we can make it as fun as The Debaters......
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
One of my favourite debates was:

The RCC didn't send their best debaters but anyone would have looked bad against Fry/the Hitch.
What I like especially about the format of the debate is that they take a vote (before and after) from the audience. So there is no arguing about who won.

That debate was sooooo brutal.

One line that really stuck with me was from Fry:

"...THEN WHAT ARE YOU FOR????"


:D
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Anything with Neil deGrasse Tyson is good, I think. He is in my opinion the best communicator of science that there is and always present his things in a very respectful way.

I also love how he's the exact same kind of nerd scientist as those characters from The Big Bang Theory

Can't even count the amount of times he referenced Star Wars, Star Trek or X-men to make some science point, lol.

He's really funny too. He would be awesome at doing some type of comedy stand-up show with scientific material. I'm positive it would be both interesting and hilarious. I'ld happily pay 50 bucks to go see that show.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
What was wondering if people here have a favorite debate that they would like to share?

To me I think the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham tops it.


If anyone have seen it, what is your take on it in general?

(This is not meant as an post to discuss specific arguments in the debate, unless someone have something that they think is important to mention.)
They say that in poker, you can't bluff someone who doesn't know what they're doing, because a player has to understand the game well enough to know where they stand before you can convince them that where they stand is a losing position.

Watching Ken Ham flop around in that debate reminded me of this. He got beaten badly, but I'm not sure he has enough grasp of the material to understand this.

I'm on the fence about whether it was a good idea for Bill Nye to do the debate. I guess it got Nye in front of a lot of Ham's fans, so there was probably some benefit from that. I doubt that anyone decided to give up on Creationism because of the debate, but at least they hopefully saw how someone with an open mind could end up accepting evolution as true.
 

ImmortalFlame

Woke gremlin
That debate was sooooo brutal.

One line that really stuck with me was from Fry:

"...THEN WHAT ARE YOU FOR????"


:D
Some context for people who haven't seen the debate:

Question:
"Question to Stephen Fry, I’m a Catholic, but I like you a lot, about … I don’t know that the Catholic church condemns homosexuality as such, only recommends chastity for everybody, and then, if I’m not married I should be chaste, whether I am homosexual or heterosexual."

Stephen Fry:
"Well, I’m afraid it simply does, it does condemn it, yes. It calls it, the official word is a disorder, but it was refined by the current Pontiff, Ratzinger, who called it a moral evil. But on the other hand we must remember, as the point that was made, is that the church is very loose on moral evils, because although they try to accuse people like me, who believe in empiricism and the Enlightenment, of somehow what they call moral relativism, as if it’s some appalling sin, where what it actually means is thought, they for example thought that slavery was perfectly fine, absolutely okay, and then they didn’t. And what is the point of the Catholic church if it says ‘oh, well we couldn’t know better because nobody else did,’ then what are you for?"

SOURCE: Intelligence² Catholic Church Debate: Transcript
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Some context for people who haven't seen the debate:

Question:
"Question to Stephen Fry, I’m a Catholic, but I like you a lot, about … I don’t know that the Catholic church condemns homosexuality as such, only recommends chastity for everybody, and then, if I’m not married I should be chaste, whether I am homosexual or heterosexual."

Stephen Fry:
"Well, I’m afraid it simply does, it does condemn it, yes. It calls it, the official word is a disorder, but it was refined by the current Pontiff, Ratzinger, who called it a moral evil. But on the other hand we must remember, as the point that was made, is that the church is very loose on moral evils, because although they try to accuse people like me, who believe in empiricism and the Enlightenment, of somehow what they call moral relativism, as if it’s some appalling sin, where what it actually means is thought, they for example thought that slavery was perfectly fine, absolutely okay, and then they didn’t. And what is the point of the Catholic church if it says ‘oh, well we couldn’t know better because nobody else did,’ then what are you for?"

SOURCE: Intelligence² Catholic Church Debate: Transcript


Thanks!

I couldn't remember the context actually... Just that one line that got shouted out.
 

night912

Well-Known Member
They say that in poker, you can't bluff someone who doesn't know what they're doing, because a player has to understand the game well enough to know where they stand before you can convince them that where they stand is a losing position.

Watching Ken Ham flop around in that debate reminded me of this. He got beaten badly, but I'm not sure he has enough grasp of the material to understand this.

I'm on the fence about whether it was a good idea for Bill Nye to do the debate. I guess it got Nye in front of a lot of Ham's fans, so there was probably some benefit from that. I doubt that anyone decided to give up on Creationism because of the debate, but at least they hopefully saw how someone with an open mind could end up accepting evolution as true.

According to Nye, his goal wasn't to disprove creationism or to convince others of it being false. His goal was more about understanding science; what it is, what it is not, how it works, etc.
 
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