On November 30, Daniel Dennett (renowned philosopher) and Dinesh D’Souza (conservative christian author) debated. The debate took place at Tufts University . The premisse of the debate they argued over was as follows: “God is a manmade invention.” Daniel Dennett argued the affirmative, and Dinesh D’Souza the negative. The video registration of the debate can be found here:
Dennett versus D’Souza, Tufts University, November 30, 2007
Some perceptions on the debate:
Apparent is not only the wide gap between the conclusions both debaters arrive at but also the use and/or lack of debating techniques. Dennett lacks the verve with which D’Souza operates. Dennett fumbles around with the microphone, takes a lot of time to state his arguments and sometimes isn’t very on target in rebutting the assertions of D’Souza which are stated in a rather agressive tone. D’Souza on the other hand certainly has a steady flow of arguments and is a rapid speaker. As mentioned, his tone is rather aggressive and he most of the time shoutes in the microphone.
To the eye therefore D’Souza won the debate. On closer examination of the presented arguments his victory isn’t clear at all. For instance D’Souza states that scientific evidence for the Big Bang supports the idea of a first cause and therefore for a intelligent creator. In my opinion this isn’t rebutted sufficiently by Dennett. Boeddhism allegedly also is compatible with the Big Bang but doesn’t invoke a divine creator.
