CNN: Retarded panel discussion on atheist discrimination

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2007-02-12 11:59pm

They had Ellen Johnson on the panel. She did a pretty good job I think. Here's a link to the Dawkins interview and the subsequent panel discussion.

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2007-02-13 12:36am

Falkenhayn wrote:I saw her interview with Richard Dawkins. And here I was thinking they'd actually let him on the panel...

That panel was bullshit. Miss atheist-whom-I've-never-heard-of rapidly rattled off a mixture of decent (and standard) points and some dubious ones, while the religious guys spewed their nonsense and interrupted and shouted. And shouted some more. If you had put Dawkins on the panel, he would have become visibly pissed off but he wouldn't be able to do much more than begin to say the easy rebuttals to the bullshit from the other panelists before they cut him off.

Just give Dawkins 15 minutes with an interviewer and he could settle the matter, calmly and with everything carefully phrased to be logical and reasonable. But the news guys aren't interested in substantial discussion; they're used to all debates turning into mind-blowingly shallow shouting matches.

Fuck them. This is why I do my discussing on the Internet, the way God intended.

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2007-02-13 02:13am

sketerpot wrote:Miss atheist-whom-I've-never-heard-of...

She's the president of the American Atheists organization.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2007-02-13 02:45am

Zadius wrote:
sketerpot wrote:Miss atheist-whom-I've-never-heard-of...
She's the president of the American Atheists organization.

Get. The. Fuck. Out. That incoherent bitch is supposed to be the apparent leader of an organization that represents me and all other American atheists? She couldn't even come up with a decent rebuttal to save her life!

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-02-13 02:59am

General Schatten wrote:
Zadius wrote:
sketerpot wrote:Miss atheist-whom-I've-never-heard-of...
She's the president of the American Atheists organization.
Get. The. Fuck. Out. That incoherent bitch is supposed to be the apparent leader of an organization that represents me and all other American atheists? She couldn't even come up with a decent rebuttal to save her life!

Wait, that's what she was?

Bullshit! She's just some random idiot. C'mon, how do they elect these people? Does anyone actually BELONG to this organization, or is it just an idiotic group that claims to represent people, and subsits solely off of allowing themselves to be strawmanned for money?

Any of us would have been better prepared for that. We at least know how to talk about the bible ethics point.

The Prime Necromancer · Post by **The Prime Necromancer** » 2007-02-13 03:05am

I was also greatly disappointed by her performance, particularly that she apparently hadn't prepared an answer for the "what is the basis for atheist morality" question. That's basically the root of the "problem" Christians and other theists have with atheists; they're of the belief that all morality comes from God, and thus not to believe in God is to have no morality. That question will always come up in a debate about atheism, and the atheist debator should have the answer and the counterstrike rehearsed and ready.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2007-02-13 05:33am

I'm pretty sure she could answer that question, but she was under time-pressure to make another point, while that asshole priest kept interrupting and trying to side-track her all the time. Answering his question would have just led to a whole other discussion where the fundie would refuse to acknowledge that morality can come from anything else than their god.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2007-02-13 04:19pm

I noticed this same problem in a "debate" that was being had on a news channel about whether the Bible should be used as reading material for students of secular schools. There was this "major" atheist representative of some atheist organization who allowed his Christian opponent to drive the "debate" from the topic mentioned to who's right about how the universe began. I mean, wtf? That representative was pathetic. I'm a poor debater, and just some guy who works at a restaurant washing dishes and making deliveries, but I feel so confident that I would have done LEAGUES better than him. At the very least I wouldn't have allowed my opponent to change the subject, or at least not turn it into a screaming match of questions.

If it was up to me, the people representing the atheists would be Michael Wong and Sam Harris, if it had to be two. I was impressed by the latter guy's email correspondence with Andrew Sullivan, though, to be fair, Sullivan sucked. There's also Richard Dawkins, Richard Carrier, and one might even through in Daniel Dennett or even James Randi, and that's just off the top of my head. And, heck, even ESPN show host Steven A. Smith would have been LEAGUES better a choice for moderator or host. He was quite fair and respectful when he hosted a debate about religion in sports and had fair respresentation. There was the one representative for seperation of church and state, the Jewish sports player (don't remember what sport exactly), some professor, and this crazy Christian guy who I got a good laugh over, as he tried to justify religious discrimination by continually going back to the claim that Christianity is true and all other religions false.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2007-02-13 04:22pm

Here's the email correspondence between Sam and Andrew: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/209/story_20904.html
Good read, at least Sam's parts.

And, by the way, Carrier, Dennett, and Harris are ALL American, for fuck's sake! And they're well known.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2007-02-13 07:56pm

Pax's moronic blithering split to here

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2007-02-13 11:33pm

Haruko wrote:And, by the way, Carrier, Dennett, and Harris are ALL American, for fuck's sake! And they're well known.

And Dawkins suggested that CNN go with one of them instead, so CNN can't claim that they didn't know.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-02-14 07:36am

Regarding Dawkins, I think he would have done better with more time, but he came off pretty well.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2007-02-14 09:37pm

Why the fuck don't they get James Randi to do these kind of things? He's got balls, but also experience dealing with loudmouth assholes in a publically acceptable manner. If anything, this type of debate would be easier than matching wits with scam-artist psychic, who can hide behind anecdotal evidence without risking being called a liar (because it's oh-so rude to demand that people be honest).

Justforfun000 · Post by **Justforfun000** » 2007-04-21 09:48pm

That email exchange above is quite interesting actually. Another by-product of the internet era that thankfully helps disseminate a coherent debate. We need more of that spread around. I suppose it would be too much to hope for educators to take such blogs as core study material in high school.

Justforfun000 · Post by **Justforfun000** » 2007-04-21 09:57pm

Damn it. I didn't mean to resurrect the old thread. It was referenced from a current one and I forgot. Sorry.

[EDIT] And lock. ~GR