Richard Dawkins and William Lane Craig

William Lane Craig

William Lane Craig has said that Richard Dawkins's "argument for atheism is a failure even if we concede, for the sake of argument, all its steps. But, in fact, several of these steps are plausibly false.

Dr. William Lane Craig is one of Christianity's leading defenders and many individuals over the years have attempted to arrange a debate between Dr. Craig and Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins has offered various ruses on why he will not debate William Lane Craig, which Dr. Craig supporters have shown were inconsistent and merely a dodge to avoid debating one of Christianity's strongest advocates.

On May 14, 2011, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a news story entitled Richard Dawkins accused of cowardice for refusing to debate existence of God. In The Daily Telegraph article Dr. Daniel Came, a member of the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University was quoted as writing to fellow atheist Richard Dawkins concerning his refusal to debate Dr. William Lane Craig, "The absence of a debate with the foremost apologist for Christian theism is a glaring omission on your CV and is of course apt to be interpreted as cowardice on your part." See also: Richard Dawkins and debate and Atheism and cowardice

In October 2011, Dr. Craig went to England and the Daily Telegraph declared that Dawkins is either a fool or a coward for his refusal to debate William Lane Craig plus declared that Dawkins is a "proud man" and a "coward" who puts on an "illiterate, angry schtick" for the public.

There was public pressure for Dawkins to debate the Christian philosopher of science and Christian apologist Dr. William Lane Craig. For example, currently there is a petition for Richard Dawkins debate William Lane Craig. YouTube recently featured a video which incorporates an audio excerpt of Craig stating that he would like to debate Dawkins and also features Dr. Craig commenting on Dawkins' refusal to debate him.

As far as Dawkins and his comfort level around professional philosophers, the atheist philosopher Massimo Pigliucci wrote:

“

Interestingly, over lunch during one of those days, I experienced Dawkins in what is a rather uncharacteristically humble mood: he confided at our table that he felt a bit intimidated, being surrounded by so many professional philosophers (he wasn’t talking about me, I assure you, but more likely of Dan Dennett and Alex Rosenberg, among others). It was interesting to see that rather unexpected (from his public appearances) side of him.

”

Richard Dawkins has publicly declared he will not debate creationists. Yet, Richard Dawkins debated the theist John Lennox who adheres to the position of intelligent design. According to Richard Dawkins, intelligent design is a form of creationism/creation science. Therefore, Richard Dawkins is not consistent concerning his assertion that he will not debate creationists. When Richard Dawkins refused to debate Dr. William Lane Craig one of the ruses Richard Dawkins used was supposedly because Dr. Craig was a creationist and Richard Dawkins claimed he didn't debate creationist. Richard was called on his inconsistency concerning refusing to debate Dr. Craig.

See also

• Atheism and Debate
• Refusal of Richard Dawkins to debate William Lane Craig
• Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian

External links

• Richard Dawkins Refuses to debate William Lane Craig (YouTube Video)
• Will Richard Dawkins debate William Lane Craig? (YouTube Video)
• William Lane Craig is avoided by Richard Dawkins at Uncommon Descent
• Why Richard Dawkins won’t debate William Lane Craig by William Dembski
• Richard Dawkins' argument for atheism in The God Delusion? by Dr. William Lane Craig