I blogged about the Sean Carroll vs William Lane Craig Debate a few days ago, and alas that was only impressions from notes. Well, the update is that the full recording is now available, and so here it is below … (or here) .. Oh and before you leap in, you may want to consider the fact that it is over two hours long.
UPDATE: The original video has been taken down … but I found a replacement …
- Skip the first 20 mins to get to the actual debate, that first part is all ads
Additional Observations …
- Craig is a very good debater, but Carroll is far better (having facts and reality on his side perhaps helps).
- Basically William Lane Craig proposes his usual cosmological argument and fine tuning argument for the existence of a god and Sean Carroll dismembers these arguments by noting that his premises are unsubstantiated even though his conclusion appears to follow from the premises.
Further Comments
- So when Vilenkin agrees that the universe began to exist, he’s speaking objectively and scientifically, and when Guth holds up a “little sign” saying that he believes the universe is eternal, he is expressing little more than guess or wishful thinking …. er no Mr Craig, you don’t get to play like that.
- If you really understand the slide on 59:55 you will stop asking what (or even worse “who”) caused the universe.
- Check the comments for that Video and you find that everybody is claiming victory for their specific champion – not a surprise.
OK, so if nobody actually changed their mind at all, why bother? To answer this I have a comment made later by Sean Carroll within his notes on it all …
Events like this are valuable, not because they are efficient ways to find the truth, nor even because there is any reasonable chance of changing the minds of people who are relatively secure in their beliefs (on either side). It’s because there are a lot of people who are not secure in their beliefs, or at least are curious and willing to listen to a variety of ideas. If we think we have good ideas, we should do everything we can to bring them to as many people as possible. I think science and naturalism include some pretty awesome ideas, and I’m happy to share them with as many different people as I can. – Sean Carroll