I am so excited that I have finally found the full video for this debate. I've been waiting for more than a year! It's Christopher Hitchens (right) debating Jay Richards (left) on Intelligent Design. The debate took place Sunday, January 27th at 4pm PST, Stanford University.
Watch Christopher Hitchens vs Jay Richards Debate in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
The debate was really good. Unfortunately, Christopher Hitchens have not changed. I think he completely understands what the Bible says about what and who God is and Hitchens rejects that. He believes that the Bible says that God is in control of everything and Hitchens does not want to be controlled or be accountable to anyone or anything other than himself and what he thinks is right. He wants to call God "to the carpet" and call his design and purposes into question. The fact that in the Bible says "I am boss and you are not." This is what Hitchens is not.
I am also very amazed about Hitchens interpretation of what the Gospel is. He says its that about God stacking all the odds against people and then demand that we behave in a certain way when it's impossible. He does not understand what Jesus did for us. Because of His love and kindness, God regenerates us so that we can obey Him and follow Him - have a real relationship with God. The trick is that God does it himself through us. We can't do it without him. Something else Hitchens hates.
One point that I think Richards did loose on is on the question of free-will. He's right if someone gives you free will it is not libertarian free will. I think Richards skunked Hitchens on the matter about "infinite regression." If I ever am challenged with the proposition to refute the point that a designer must himself have a designer, I want to use his argument. Hitchens misses the point that Theists do not argue that God ever came into existence...He always was. Always is. Always will be. This is why Richards and William Lane Craig use words so carefully: "that which begins to exist must have a cause."
Another point I think is worth mentioning is the argument for design called "Fine-tuning". It says that the all the natural constants, force, physical laws and properties are set just right so that life exists on earth. Jay Richards and his partners pushes the point farther by saying that the universe is set up just right so that we can perform scientific inquiry. God not only designed the universe to support life on earth but put us in the perfect place so we can measure and observe what He did. I reject Hitchens' and other's attempt to criticize that design because they are assuming to know what God's purposes are are for why things are like they are. If you don't know what the intent was, assuming that there is a design, how did you know there was a failure? Reminds me of the Justice League cartoons when Batman throws a batarang at an opponent and we think he missed until a second later we see see that he was actually aiming for something else entirely - winning the confrontation. What Batman says in those circumstances is what I believe God is saying to us when we don't know what He's doing and why: "Wait for it."
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