Yet Again, the Most Intelligent, Well Informed and Vociferous Atheist in the World Cower from Debate

Let us simply state, “Stick a fork in them, for they are done.” This is the very last straw of the very many straws that they have been offered so as to build even a little bail of respectability.
The year 2010 AD will see the gathering of the “Global Atheist Convention” in Melbourne, Australia. This meeting of the best, the brightest and those who abscond from debate is titled, “The Rise of Atheism” and billed as the “biggest ever atheist event in Australia’s history.”

It appears that it should be titled “The Rise of Atheism via closing minds, putting on airs of arrogant superiority and selectively absconding from debate.” This is because Creation Ministries International-Australia offered to debate the world’s leading atheist/evolutionists while they conveniently gathered down under.

CMI-A (who published a pretty nice essay on atheism, if I do say so myself) originally pitched the offer to debate to the event organizers, the Atheist Foundation of Australia, and subsequently to individual headliners such as Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers. With one voice, though employed different excuses, they have each turned down the opportunity to defend their views even on territory saturated by their adherents.

I have proven, as if any proof was required, that Richard Dawkins, supposed champion of atheism, reason and science, and other likewise personages claim, on the surface, to flatly refuse to debate “creationists” (a term in which they place anyone from YECists to Intelligent Design theorists and any one of those people) but since they then, on rare occasion, do debate some of them; it is clear that they are picking and choosing what they consider to be easy targets while absconding from defending their views in any way that is not behind their keyboards or lecture to friendly audiences (for PZ Myers see here for Richard Dawkins see: Dawkins’ Debate Delusion, Will Richard Dawkins Debate Stephen Meyer? and Is Richard Dawkins Still Alive?).

Now they are coming together in force to promote The Rise of Atheism and while proving that atheists are rising, in numbers, their champions are all but flaccid. Worse yet, the more that their champions refuse to debate and tackle anything but straw-men and straw-gods the more their adherents cheer them on and excuse their every cowardly act. This is because, since atheism is, au fond, rejection of God atheism is, au fond, an emotional position.

CMI-A’s proposal was, in part, offered to the Atheist Foundation of Australia as follows:

CMI-Australia in particular became convinced that with the world’s top atheists boastfully proclaiming their faith and its alleged “intellectual foundations” (evolutionary science) in Australia, we had a duty to make a public stand in response…

Since this is about as public an anti-God pretension as there could be, and one based on a claim to rational argument, we sent an open letter of invitation/challenge to the convention organisers. This was for a public creation-evolution debate, offering for it to be formally videotaped with each side freely able to distribute it, regardless of the outcome. They were to be permitted to have a panel of their choice of atheists (preferably including Dawkins) formally debate the issue—of whether the evidence best supports creation or evolution—against our choice of CMI staff scientists…

(which position on origins, yours or ours, is better supported by the available evidence?). The exact wording can be finetuned between us, but the above should adequately clarify the nature of the subject matter with little room for misunderstanding…

You have the chance (if your arguments really do stand up, as they are continually promoted) to be able to finally demolish some of the world’s most prominent proponents of scientific creationism in one sitting, and in public…Dr Dawkins and others have no difficulty countering “strawman” arguments of their own making…

As it turns out:

We got a rejection back the same day—which didn’t surprise us, except for possibly the speed. It’s easy for popular anticreationist books to distort and misrepresent the science involved in proper creationist claims made by scientifically trained and competent people, and also to set up strawmen to “demolish” in front of an unsuspecting audience.
But if it wasn’t obvious before, it is clear now, that it was never going to be palatable to such anti-creation promoters to be held accountable in public for their misrepresentations, strawmen (and sometimes blatant deceptions). Nevertheless, we think it was important to try, if only to have taken a stand so that it might in some way help highlight the bankruptcy of these claims of “intellectual superiority”…

The organisers even refused to pass the invitation on to the presenters. When we asked again, we were told that we could contact PZ Myers and Dawkins on their respective websites directly by email. We did this, though we were not surprised that there was no takeup by either of this offer…

An Atheist Foundation of Australia representative stated, in part,

We expect Richard Dawkins and other credible scientists would consider debating a position that is supported by an equal amount of evidence in accredited scientific literature as supports evolution.

Well, they expected too much. CMI-A wanted to specifically debate the evidence that supports evolution but the best that atheism/evolution has to offer say, “Nay!”

Since the Atheist Foundation of Australia refused to even pass along the debate challenge to any of speakers CMI-A could not help but logically conclude that they were doing so in order to:

a) prevent the presenters from finding out about the invitation or (perish the thought) b) seeming to do so, in order to provide a way for presenters to be able to position themselves as if they knew nothing of it, or at least not in time (when asked the inevitable question as to why they would refuse such a golden opportunity).

CMI-A states:

Dawkins himself, while in Australia in March 2010, will also be holding a public lecture in Brisbane, home of CMI-Australia. The venue bills him as one who, via his latest book The Greatest Show on Earth, “comprehensively rebuts the creationists by pulling together the incontrovertible evidence for evolution.”…
CMI will, prior to Dawkins’ arrival, be releasing a new book by Dr Jonathan Sarfati comprehensively rebutting the best that Dawkins could come up with on evolution, the intellectual foundation stone of his atheism…

The book will be titled, The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on evolution (a response to Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth: the evidence for evolution).

Since the assiduous absconders refuse to debate, CMI-A will be putting on their own multi-session event with an optional “early bird” screening of our Darwin documentary The Voyage That Shook the World (about which I posted here):

Sunday March 14, 2010, 2 pm to 6.30 pm (bonus early bird Darwin documentary 1 pm)
Life Ministry Centre (Old Melbourne Rd, Chirnside Park)
Free admission (voluntary donation only)

So, go down under and watch the fireworks!

My baby ate a Dingo!

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