Atheist. Christian debate
MICHELLE THERLAULT
The Willamette University Collegian
Nov. 1, 2001
An ex- atheist turned Christian and an ex-Christian turned atheist
debated the existence of a Christian God in the Cat Cavern Tuesday
night in front of over 150 Willamette students. The formal
debate
was sponsored by the Campus Ambassadors and the Issues &
Controversies Board. The idea to hold a formal debate was originated by
Jeff Poush, campus director of Campus Ambassadors.
“It
speaks to relevance of issues in students lives, they want answers to
these huge questions in peoples lives like the existence of
God,”
Poush said of the debate. “I like the format of a formal
debate;
its respectful. Instead of seeing people fight and argue, it gives
people a clear impression of the truth and the claims people are
making.”
Speaking as a Christian turned atheist, David Anderson attempted to
systematically disprove the existence of God.
“I’m
trying to find holes [in the Bible’s logic],; I also only
need
one. Anderson said. Using overheads, he referenced biblical verses that
he said contradicted other passages of the bible. “As far as
I
know there is no place in the Bible that says the same opportunities
should be given to women as men,” he said. Siegel
responded
by saying “The Bible is not a collection of fortune cookie
fortunes to be taken out of context...We are reading a document
that’s 2000 years old. To read this without
factoring in
cultural context is to do the Bible a great injustice.”
“I thought that Dave Anderson didn’t really respond
very
well to issues brought up by Bob Siegel. He seemed more interested in
presenting his own agenda,” said Senior Dominic
McIntyre.
Other students noticed a discrepancy between the
persuasiveness of
the speakers. “Based on his rhetorical style, I
thought Bob
Siegel was a minister because he was a powerful speaker, which could
have been why he was more successful,” freshman Caitlin
Simmons
said. After the debate, the speakers stayed to
individually
answer questions from audience members. When asked
why he
speaks to college campuses about his conversion to atheism, David
Anderson said it was “Mainly because I see a value in it.
Being
that I was once a Christian I found my life to have more meaning being
an atheist. “The reason I became an atheist was
just an
accumulation of problems I had with the basic scheme of
Christianity” “[The debate] was
conducted in a
non-biased way, I thought it was handled very
professionally,”
said Sophomore Rene Schwab after the event. |
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