Freethought Matters - Oxford Debate - May 23, 2024

[@paulwu1301]

The mind has so much more freedom when you’re free from religious restrains.

[@gordonwilson1631]

Excellent presentation. Religion is all the creation of the human mind. Humans must take responsibility.

[@MsLilyHaven]

I'm so disappointed with the Cardinal's comments. His comments about a "personal relationship" with a being that can not be seen or heard in any material way, is really the very definition of what it means to be delusional. I'm disappointed that he doesn't seem to grasp the meaning of his own comments, but then again it's actually even worse if he does understand and willfully continues to spread the delusion to others. Thank you FFRF for posting this video.

[@laceystinson]

It's somewhat like people who believe they have a personal relationship with a celebrity actor just from watching them on TV. Things the actor says and does are encoded messages meant just for that person. In reality, there's no relationship there. The perceived relationsip takes place on just one side of the equation. In religion, of course, the celebrity actor is God, while countless people have written, and continue to write scripts that define--from their own imagination--a nature and character for the ficrtional actor by making the character say and do things that portray some aspect of human experience. As long as it's understood to be fiction--because it's in our nature to fantasize and imagine things--there's no problem.

[@Mrz-sb1hw]

Get ten Christians and you'll get ten different versions of the Bible and everyone has "the truth". In the beginning, you'll get ten different versions of what that means. They can't even agree amongst themselves what the Bible means.

[@CrackedCubes-q4b]

not to mention the Gospels that were removed from the Bible for being heretical.

[@gabrielmaroto18]

The only things that United them are racism, homophobia, women in the kitchen, tax cuts for the rich, and stealing resources from less advance people.

[@BrianBattles]

Claiming to have a relationship with an imaginary being is disturbingly

[@rosieokelly]

Claiming something can come from nothing is more absurd.

[@BrianBattles]

@rosieokelly Or from magic. I've never heard anyone claim something can come from nothing, except religion people.

[@kellydalstok8900]

@@rosieokelly What did your god make the universe out of, and by what means? Did you ever even give it a thought?

[@chamicels]

@@rosieokelly claiming something can come from nothing is weird but its even worse when you propose a "being" outside of time and space spoke it into existence. Seems like that is a fairy tale.

[@rosieokelly]

No, sounds like God.

[@26beegee]

The Catholic man talked about a “relationship” with God. I tried for over 50 years to have a relationship with God. I never was able to achieve that and am still puzzled as to how that can be possible. A relationship requires two-way communication. How is that possible with an invisible entity? Exactly how does that work? Always my question, which is never answered.

[@kellydalstok8900]

The bishop sounded as if he never in his life thought for himself. He just parroted the standard religious woo woo.

[@ikhraamosman4479]

Amazing that intellectuals at Oxford still actually accept the convoluted concept of an unproven god over rational argument.

[@tommyvictorbuch6960]

"Religion is pretending to know things you don't know." - Aron Ra - The Theists here couldn't demonstrate this more clearly.

[@jeffhough7460]

"If you want your life to matter, try making someone else's life matter" -Aaron Ra

[@nellwhiteside3042]

Theobabble - what a wonderful word!

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Oh dear!!! Dan is a monster in debate! He eats them alive with his cunning wit. Nothing seems to escape him, and he goes straight to the core of the matter! Daaaang, I have seen him in action many times, and feal sorry for any apologist daring to face him! Too bad for them it's always "Kablamo, lights out, you're done, go home, throw in another dollar and try again (or is it 5 bucks now? Been a while)... You get my drift!

[@ChrisBussells]

True, but if Hitchens was still around and on their team, most of the audience would have exited by their door.😁

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

@@ChrisBussells That's not true! Kitchens always did good at Oxford, and only the most irrational religious zealous would rather just show undeserved disgust, instead of thinking about what he had to say, and that happened with Dan and others who were less in your face than the Hitchinator! Also: It takes different types and approaches to get through to different people, so it's all good, we need the gentle ones and the ones who kick butt, and everything in between to get rid of religion and other factional ideologies, to come to the agreement we are all people on the very same planet, all longing for the best life we can live, but not despite others, but in working with each other. It's the the only life and place we have for now, and it's not going to change any time soon, so we should, and kind of have to secure others survival to aid securing our own. and with it make it better for everyone, not just select few!

[@manelsalido]

Well done, Dan!! Great arguments, absolutely clear!

[@YY4Me133]

Please post a link to the entire debate. Thanks.

[@tommyvictorbuch6960]

I am a Creationist. I believe man created God.

[@HurricaneHeather]

I believed in god of Abraham because I was taught to believe in that god. Then something in my life happened that yanked me out of that cultural delusion. Over the last 20 or so years, it keeps being more self evident to me that there is no god.

[@Former_Pastor]

Same. I've been a Atheist for 25 years

[@stevenbrown6277]

I love the quip about 'finding god' : Why do you have to smoke him out of his hiding place".

[@ornos3133]

This is question I have with Dan Barker. Can he publish, if still available, the sermons he once preached? I’m just curious out of seeing this aspect of his journey from preacher days to atheist scholar.

[@JaCeeMusic]

dan! you da man! thanks for this ffrf!

[@johnwright-b2l]

God is the creation not the creator.

[@harveywabbit9541]

The Lord (sun), God (sun), is a Sun and a Shield

[@percubit10]

Nature is wher God is.

[@BrianBattles]

The Sun is a star

[@mikeenwright2622]

Got any evidence for that assertion?

[@BrianBattles]

@@mikeenwright2622 Sure, people wrote the bible, and nothing has ever happened that demonstrates any god

[@TheMindSpeaker]

Great talk. Please let me know the communities or groups to meet in Europe; Germany, France and other countries.

[@tommyvictorbuch6960]

"If God exists, I want him to tell me himself. I don't want to hear it from anybody else - and in case you're wondering, that includes you." - Pat Condell -

[@whittfamily1]

44% of the audience voted in favor of the idea that God is a delusion. This percentage is much higher than what is the case in the general population. Great presentation by our atheist team.

[@glenncurry3041]

Fine tuning as the lead off? Sad.

[@glenncurry3041]

Interestingly, it seems each of those on the Opposition, were in agreement of the others' gods as delusions! It was three 5x1 debates.

[@iitywybmad29]

superstition - noun 1a: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation b: an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition 2: a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary Merriam-Webster

[@kenigma79]

I was looking forward to hearing this debate. There are approximately 7 min of the debate shown and the rest talks about Oxford and getting ready for the debate. If you can’t change the title, can you tell us where to find the actual debate as described in the title? Having said that, I am with the “four horsemen”. Hitchens was right when he wrote “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”

[@thelyrebird1310]

1988 I was deep in YWAM on outreach to Indonesia

[@OceanusHelios]

A person could say, "Imagine the most unimaginable being that could ever be imagined! You can't!" You can not DEFINE this into existence. It is just word salad created by vain minds who have a no humility and REFUSE to say, "I don't know."

[@motaman8074]

" There is no there, there."

[@drumcircler]

Religious faith is the abandonment of common sense.

[@chamicels]

The proper answer to the question of the birth of the Universe is : I don't know.

[@bjornsirum]

It really is an unfair fight - defending something that doesn't exist. Like a game where The Answers Are Made Up, And The Points Don't Matter...

[@tomnanD3]

No god. There is no doubt in my mind.

[@harveywabbit9541]

The Lord (sun), God (sun), is a Sun and a Shield.

[@factandsuspicionpodcast2727]

I'm an atheist as well, but if you have zero doubts you should read more epistemology.

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

@@factandsuspicionpodcast2727 Most of philosophy has been overtaken by theists. The truth is omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence are all self contradicting, or contradict reality in some fashion. And people say god can think while beyond time/space, in reality actions are only possible within space/time because they take time to do, and require properties to be done which demand differences of locality. Omniscience would take infinite meta-data to account for itself within a system. There is literally no way for a god to exist in a literal sense.

[@landsgevaer]

Depends a bit on what you call god. The omni-* god, sure. A deistic god I would not be able to formally exclude. But I know no god that might exist that is of any interest.

[@xXxTeenSplayer]

Knope 😉

[@elainejohnson6955]

Please link to the whole debate.

[@arxaaron]

A clarification request: I've always heard the religious label "Sikh" pronounced as "seek". As religions go, I find the Sikh adherents to be a bit less "sick" than many other deluded cultists.

[@duanejohnson9798]

Wow! I had no idea that I'm a GOD. 😮😊.

[@MichaelBath-xv5bd]

Welcome to England Dan..🇬🇧

[@murph6730]

Where can we find the full debate?

[@laceystinson]

Here is a playlist of 7 videos of each speaker's presentation: kzbin.info/aero/PLOAFgXcJkZ2xWv0tQcSmGS7uA-nkTsykt&si=D2xfMNdMUb0-5EIw

[@MichaelBath-xv5bd]

Lord of the Singhs ? When did that happen ?

[@BertRussell4711]

If the poll taken at the end of the debate was the question, "Is God a delusion?," then it's no surprise that the atheist team lost the vote. I, myself, am an agnostic, and while I typically side with atheists in debates against religionists, I would never assert that God is a delusion, no matter how expertly the atheists argued. What the audience should have been asked was simply, "Who won the debate?" Indeed, had _that_ been the question, then the atheist team might well have received more votes, and mine would certainly have been one of them.

[@Iamjamessmith1]

God is an ace on the table. This means God wins every argument. This means the Bible wins every argument because it is an ace in the deck of life as we play cards with one another and try to manipulate each other if possible. Both Democrats and Republicans and evangelicals and Catholics and Muslims and Christians and everyone else tries to do this and it causes war in the world.

[@cheeks2696]

Humans are so damn interesting. And the human brain, well don’t get me started… god is manmade and the universe does not give a shit!

[@zach2980]

How in the hell did they “lose” that debate? Sign of society’s next problem?

[@kellydalstok8900]

loose /loo͞s/ adjective 1. Not fastened, restrained, or contained. "loose bricks." 2. Not taut, fixed, or rigid. "a loose anchor line; a loose chair leg." 3. Free from confinement or imprisonment; unfettered. "criminals loose in the neighborhood; dogs that are loose on the streets." lose /loo͞z/ intransitive verb 1. To be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; mislay. "He's always losing his car keys." 2. To be deprived of (something one has had). "lost her art collection in the fire; lost her job." 3. To be left alone or desolate because of the death of. "lost his wife."

[@kellydalstok8900]

And also: winning a debate says nothing about the veracity of the claim.

[@zach2980]

@@kellydalstok8900 of course

[@wayno5655]

LoL - Queen Elizabeth was not an english politician. Love your work though.

[@Spiritdove64]

Well this is a bummer I thought we was going to actually listen to the debate but they've done nothing but ramble on about other things and never even played the debate so I'm out of here have a nice day

[@kleenmaint]

And man created God.

[@CMVMic]

I was really hoping that famous strawman of things coming from nothing would not have been regurgitated by the Sikh guy but seeing he was on the theist camp I guess I shouldnt be surprised

[@glenncurry3041]

CE not AD.

[@debranelson1987]

Exactly

[@lelandstronks319]

Clapton is God🎸🤓

[@failuretocommunicate]

Religion is the study of stagnation.

[@ThomasDooley-lb1pz]

Queen Elizabeth II was not a polititician and was not allowed to interfere in the pölitical process. Please do your research before you make such statements

[@rictenwheel25]

His point was she spoke at the Oxford Union. That was the point. The point was not that she was a politician. It is interesting that, the one thing you chose to comment on and scold him about, was implying Queen Elizabeth was a politician. That does highlight your agenda. To tear down. And I bet you are a theist.

[@CrackedCubes-q4b]

How does someone with Alzheimer's come to know God if they did not know him/her/it before their brain devolved into it's memory loss state? Hmmm... just another whack of the hammer on the nail in the God coffin.

[@monotheist..]

first 6 min ago

[@ewencameron4269]

Free thinkers are better described at egotists. Humility is the essential key to real knowledge but not culturally poplar and has currently been largely cancelled

[@kellydalstok8900]

Are you familiar with the term “humblebrag”?

[@Burtimus02]

When the knowledge you claim turns out (after careful investigation) to be fundamentally wrong, you cannot claim to be humble. You are pretending to be in possession of knowledge you do not have. Ironically, I seem to recall a biblical passage about a profession of wisdom.

[@vmrs70cr]

Hi Dan/Annie! ¿Cuándo vienen a Costa Rica? Cheers! 🌹

[@PhilosophyDose2]

Dogmatic religiosity is gross, but so is the dogmatic idea that nothing metaphysical exists.

[@landsgevaer]

I would not know how the verb "exist" could apply to something "non-physical".

[@PhilosophyDose2]

@@landsgevaer ya, it takes a certain type of perception that is subjective in order to 'see' the nonphysical. Some people are just too "thick" and want to be totally reductionistic in their thinking, that's all they got.