I called in as "David" from Tampa, 23, at UF studying chemistry. I simply used a pseudonym because I wasn't sure how the show would go -- if he would be hostile, if he would even air my segment. I was also a little insecure about being live on air, and I've never debated live on-air before, so I wanted to see how it went. Only the beginning of my call was captured at the very end of the second hour of Friday's show, but he taped the rest of it and promised to air it later (on Monday, I suppose). You can listen to the last 2 minutes of the show here and catch me being welcomed on.
___*UPDATE*___
He did indeed put it on Monday's show, hour 2. You can listen to it here. My segment with him starts about 40 minutes in. He did a lot of editing of the show, which doesn't surprise me very much, and it is hard to tell, but he is actually jumping in and out of the show with explanations, and cutting out parts, rather than just letting it all play.
For instance, he completely omitted the part about cosmology and how the Standard Model = "something from nothing," where I corrected him and called him on equivocation.
One big thing that Todd messes up badly is the idea that atheists are "suppressing knowledge of God" in order to deny the judgment. I've dealt with this at some length before, and the problem with this argument, as I tried to point out, is that I don't have to deny a god's existence in order to deny the Christian God's existence, or in order to deny the Bible's inerrancy, etc. It is a non sequitur of the highest order to say, "If God, then judgment," yet Todd seems to take this leap in logic for granted and as if it is self-evident! The God of the Deists is only one of thousands of completely accessible theistic beliefs that avoid the whole notion of orthodox Christian judgment, along with Islam and Hinduism and etc. To say that atheists "just disbelieve to avoid judgment" is thus laughable.
At the end of the show, notice that he dodged the issue of mercy vs. justice entirely. Like many Christians, he can't seem to comprehend that you cannot both be merciful and just at the same time:
Mercy: Not giving someone what they deserveAccording to Todd, at the end of the show, God is always just. He always gives people what they deserve. However, with the same breath, and in complete self-contradiction, he claims that all sinners deserve hell, but that some do not receive it, because they "repent and trust"...
Just: Giving someone what they deserve
The argument is that because God punished Himself, an innocent Person, in order to give mercy, it is still just, because someone "paid for" what I deserve.
So, in this twisted view of justice, an innocent person can be punished for a guilty person's crimes, and this is still just!! No. That is complete rubbish. Instead, this would be barbaric and injust. Now, if the person who is punished volunteers to be punished, then you have mercy, not justice. And if God can be merciful to whomever he pleases, and accept their wrongdoings by forgiving them for those wrongdoings, then of course God can arbitrarily decide to be merciful at his own whim! As Paul said in Romans 9:15-31ff, this sort of God just decides who to have mercy on, and who to judge justly, and can make some people for hell, and some for heaven ("vessels fit for destruction, vessels fit for mercy").
Of course, the question of how the whole "hell = just punishment for sin" argument follows, even if God does put people in hell, is a completely separate, and even more difficult, issue.
DagoodS from DC has dealt with this issue at some length: God gets to make the rules, and one of the rules can be that he doesn't have to enforce them at all times, and thus God gets to decide what justice is and what mercy is. The whole idea that God is "bound" to throw sinners into hell is thus laughable and absurd.
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One other thing to highlight: Exapologist points to a new and useful resource on the Christian apologetic commonly known as "presuppositionalism". I have covered this issue at some length here and elsewhere, and Prof. Witmer's intro to the subject, and his interview with Gene Cook, is always a good place to start.
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Technorati tags: God, Religion, Atheism
