Topic: Debate

[Pablo de Fleurs]

Brothers & sisters, some of you may know that I teach Christian Apologetics & maintain a blog on the subject. I get a great deal of my information from RZIM (Ravi Zacharias), Answers in Genesis, Lee Strobel, William Lane Craig & the assorted apologetic organizations which I follow on Twitter.

Last month, I was approached by a local church & asked if I would be willing to hold down the Christian POV in a debate with a nationally ranked High School senior debating champion & atheist on the topic of the "Relevance of the Christian Worldview in 2015". The calendar year was added to the title because, so often, it’s used as a benchmark for accepting cultural moral degradation. “After all”, the opponent quips “it’s 2015!” – or “How can you cling to ancient morality, or definitions of marriage in 2015?” - as if the passing of one more calendar year somehow dissolves moral metrics & standards.

I've seen my opponent in action this past October when he debated an ordained Pastor on 'Creation vs. Evolution' and, although a fervent defender of science & atheism, leaves HUGE holes in his approach & logic (leaning on pragmatism, subjective morality & scientific "evidence" [which always borders on more philosophy than science])..all while attempting to deliver a "knockout blow" to his opponent (for which there isn't one...on either side of the debate).

A tentative date has been set for late January - and I am asking for prayer: specifically that I can balance a rigorous defense of rational faith, coupled with a winsomeness that reaches out to the audience & portrays the Truth as well as the Love of Jesus Christ…not necessarily that I’m the perceived “winner” of the debate.

Thanks! 

[IronDioPriest]

This ought be fun for you Pablo! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

Prayers that Holy Spirit is manifest in your style, demeanor, affability, trustworthiness, articulation, confidence, and content. Prayers that the fruits of Holy Spirit radiate in ways too obvious to ignore.

Any chance there will be video or audio?

[Libertas]

You got all my    !

I think you have the right perspective Pablo, don't concern yourself with winning, that will be the ending desire that forms his means, you only have to be authentic, honest and of good humor and not be bullied or accepting of false premises.

 

[AlanS]

I think you have the right perspective Pablo, don't concern yourself with winning, that will be the ending desire that forms his means, you only have to be authentic, honest and of good humor and not be bullied or accepting of false premises.

^^^This^^^

We'll say a prayer for guidance during the debate.

And be sure to link to any vids or audio.

[Pablo de Fleurs]

Thanks very much, guys! 

It may be recorded (I’ll ask) & made available via You.Tube – if so, I’ll post it here. I know many of the sources he has used previously (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, various scientists & scientific “findings”) & am also familiar with the flaws in their adamant assertions. The atheistic side (like a raging Vegan) isn’t content with their Worldview…they are often compelled to smash the opposition and, in their vociferousness, often leave wide “gaps” in their thinking & examples.

I rely on “pointing” as opposed to “proving” – pointing someone in the direction that subjective morality (like a malleable yardstick made of Silly Putty) leads us & how we wouldn’t rely on such metrics in a court of law, legal contracts or real estate boundaries. Thus pointing, and letting the target audience derive/draw their own conclusions is often effective.

My plan will be an opening statement, claiming faith as rational & then a toolkit of responses to the top 10-12 arguments against same along with real-time/real-life examples.

[Pandora]

There are times to be a warrior for Christ and times to be a messenger.  Choosing an occasion to be, predominantly, one over the other does not necessarily preclude the other.

[Magnum]

My prayers will be for you too Pablo. I think you will do awesome, I remember some of the discussions we used to have at the old site and you always impressed me with your wit and wisdom and feel God has blessed you with the ability to debate very well.

Thank you for being willing to do this. It is time for Christians to start to speak up. Just this week Pastor James MacDonald's program Walk in the Word  is re-airing "What is Down with Hell." It is the most terrifying, horrifying and hopeless sermon especially to those who are not saved that I have ever heard on Hell in my life.

As a Born Again Believer I sometimes lose sleep over the fate that awaits those who decide that Yeshua Jesus in not who He said He is and reject Him.

James MacDonald sermon: What's Down with Hell

I believe the Lord will work through you so many eyes will be opened to the Life Giving Message of the Good News found only through Yeshua Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Gods Blessings my Friend and please keep us updated. Thank you.

[Pablo de Fleurs]

[Libertas]

The Age of Faulty Recognition, sounds like we are smack in the middle of it.   

[Pablo de Fleurs]

Working on themes & ideas...@PablodeFleurs

• "If" there is no #God, then what defines "#good"?  How do you know it when you see it? And where does it come from? #Metrics
• "Subjective" reasoning only works in a vacuum of 1. Once it gets out your front door...you're world's cooked. #Metrics #Atheism

[Libertas]

Nice.  Basically asking "From whence does your morality, if you have it, come from and how can it come from nothing?"  Hey, that latter one I really like, but both are good and should be strategically deployed for maximum devastation, they're like nukes, one-and-done, pick the right spot...after deployment they even go near that radioactive ground again you just have to smile and say "going down that subjective/nothingness dead end again, are we?"!

      Zowie!

 

[Weisshaupt]

You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous Life without the Assistance afforded by Religion; you having a clear Perception of the Advantages of Virtue and the Disadvantages of Vice, and possessing a Strength of Resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common Temptations. But think how great a Proportion of Mankind consists of weak and ignorant Men and Women, and of inexperienc’d and inconsiderate Youth of both Sexes, who have need of the Motives of Religion to restrain them from Vice, to support their Virtue, and retain them in the Practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great Point for its Security; And perhaps you are indebted to her originally that is to your Religious Education, for the Habits of Virtue upon which you now justly value yourself.  -Benjamin Franklin Letter to Unknown - Reasons Against Satirizing Religion -December 13, 1757

But let us take the Argument in another View, and suppose ourselves to be, in the common sense of the Word, Free Agents. As Man is a Part of this great Machine, the Universe, his regular Acting is requisite to the regular moving of the whole. Among the many Things which lie before him to be done, he may, as he is at Liberty and his Choice influenc’d by nothing, (for so it must be, or he is not at Liberty) chuse any one, and refuse the rest. Now there is every Moment something best to be done, which is alone then good, and with respect to which, every Thing else is at that Time evil. In order to know which is best to be done, and which not, it is requisite that we should have at one View all the intricate Consequences of every Action with respect to the general Order and Scheme of the Universe, both present and future; but they are innumerable and incomprehensible by any Thing but Omniscience. As we cannot know these, we have but as one Chance to ten thousand, to hit on the right Action; we should then be perpetually blundering about in the Dark, and putting the Scheme in Disorder; for every wrong Action of a Part, is a Defect or Blemish in the Order of the Whole. Is it not necessary then, that our Actions should be over-rul’d and govern’d by an all-wise Providence? —

....

Thus is Uneasiness the first Spring and Cause of all Action; for till we are uneasy in Rest, we can have no Desire to move, and without Desire of moving there can be no voluntary Motion. The Experience of every Man who has observ’d his own Actions will evince the Truth of this; and I think nothing need be said to prove that the Desire will be equal to the Uneasiness, for the very Thing implies as much: It is not Uneasiness unless we desire to be freed from it, nor a great Uneasiness unless the consequent Desire is great.

I might here observe, how necessary a Thing in the Order and Design of the Universe this Pain or Uneasiness is, and how beautiful in its Place! Let us but suppose it just now banish’d the World entirely, and consider the Consequence of it: All the Animal Creation would immediately stand stock still, exactly in the Posture they were in the Moment Uneasiness departed; not a Limb, not a Finger would henceforth move; we should all be reduc’d to the Condition of Statues, dull and unactive: Here I should continue to sit motionless with the Pen in my Hand thus ——— and neither leave my Seat nor write one Letter more -Benjamin Franklin A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain - 1725

[warpmine]

My prayers friend.

[Pablo de Fleurs]

An Atheist Struggles To Account For Objective Moral Laws and Duties

[Pablo de Fleurs]

I may (depending upon the makeup of the crowd) use this in January.

@PablodeFleurs
#Ferguson's a perfect example of people making up a narrative & acting upon it against their own best interests.
#Subjective reality.

Not sure if it will create the opposite effect or if people will "get it."

[Libertas]

The ObamaCare non-debate slam-down America's throat would be another good one in light of the Gruber disclosures, the subjective easily proved if roles were reversed and say the government was compelling by force of penalty to make every citizen purchase a federal citizen identification card without which one cannot vote in any election or run for any office.

And then there is the entirely subjective religion of Climate Change...

[warpmine]

The ObamaCare non-debate slam-down America's throat would be another good one in light of the Gruber disclosures, the subjective easily proved if roles were reversed and say the government was compelling by force of penalty to make every citizen purchase a federal citizen identification card without which one cannot vote in any election or run for any office.

And then there is the entirely subjective religion of Climate Change...

Sure but those debates are in fact political but then isn't what we're talking about here political as well otherwise the left wouldn't bother with it.

[Libertas]

The ObamaCare non-debate slam-down America's throat would be another good one in light of the Gruber disclosures, the subjective easily proved if roles were reversed and say the government was compelling by force of penalty to make every citizen purchase a federal citizen identification card without which one cannot vote in any election or run for any office.

And then there is the entirely subjective religion of Climate Change...

Sure but those debates are in fact political but then isn't what we're talking about here political as well otherwise the left wouldn't bother with it.

Yes, the Left taught us everything is political, so, burn them with their own gasoline.

[warpmine]

Yes, the Left taught us everything is political, so, burn them with their own gasoline.

True dat

[Pablo de Fleurs]

Met earlier this evening with the team in charge of the debate ( 7:00PM, 1/25/15 - it should be You.Tubed... )...

One of the opponent's questions "Is religion a force for 'good' in the world anymore?"
(first thought: by whose metric, definition or standard? What defines "good"?)

• • Welfare for all?;
  • Gays run amok?
  • Abortion stations at bus-stops?
  • Victoria Secrets models running Congress?
   
  
  
  #WhatsYourOnticReferant?"