A couple of years ago, I faced the rather formidable challenge of engaging in public debate against Ed Buckner, former president of American Atheists. Ed was very experienced in that sort of thing; it was my first and remains as of today, the only formal debate I've ever had in my life. Therefore, my work was certainly cut out for me. Fortunately for me, video existed on You Tube showing Ed present his best arguments while debating a Muslim scholar in the U.K. named Hamza Andreas Tzortzis. So I took copious notes, seizing upon the opportunity to anticipate Ed's best shots. In fairness, Ed also should have been able to anticipate my best shots coming, if he'd bothered to read some of my work as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner. In my opening remarks, I enumerated the seven points that Ed made that were the foundation his best arguments for atheism and then eviscerated them, point-by-point. I sort of expected that once the logical flaws in Ed's argument were systematically exposed and shredded before he'd ever opened his mouth, we would then be able to spend the remainder of our time arguing about points about the science that has now officially become the crux of my Counterargument for God. Because I knew Ed to be quite an intelligent man, I will now confess that I was expecting the alleged "freethinker" would be a little bit more open-minded. I foolishly assumed that Ed would be able to defend his own beliefs, rather than simply attacking what he supposed to be mine with every opportunity.Sadly, Ed disappointed me. Also in my opening … [Read more...]