Theologian Attempts Censorship After Losing Public Debate

RockDoctor writes "Theologian John Haught publicly debated prominent evolutionary scientist and atheist Jerry Coyne at the University of Kentucky back in October. Before the debate, both parties agreed to the debate being video-taped. Coyne is of the opinion that he convincingly won the debate over Haught. But we'll never know, because Haught, with the assistance of staff at the University of Kentucky, who sponsored the debate, is banning publication of the video of the event. They are even refusing to release the half of the debate containing Coyne's comments and questions."

Comments

Persuade, inform, advocate, and entertain

[Anonymous Coward]

The point of public debate is to sway those (perhaps few) in the audience who are undecided on the matter being debated; to inform in a dramatic manner; and to raise the profile of an issue that the debaters and venue consider important.

Re:You are *assuming* this is why he's 'censoring'

[cryptoluddite]

Richard Dawkins, for instance, who is by now a champion of atheism, and has absolutely no need to do so, *still* resorts almost continuously to ad hominem attacks in his debates; the man does his homework

If the opponent is basing their argument on their own self, like saying "god spoke to me" or "I know this is true" (ie trust me) or using the respect of their office then it isn't ad hominem to attack their person -- they opened the door by using themselves as their argument. Unfortunately there aren't very many compelling arguments for religion that don't boil down to 'trust me' or 'god spoke to me', but it isn't Dawkin at fault.

Re:What was the point of this exercise?

[LordLimecat]

Slashdot never disappoints: Apparently noone here has, nor intends to read the article.

If you did, you would see that (as one might have expected) there was more to the story than Coyne gave. You can read Haught's response here. Additionally, he has posted the video, after recieving some apparently quite nasty emails (way to show them how reasonable athiesm is, by personally attacking people with hatemail!)

The issues seemed to be as follows:

• 1) There was never an agreement to post the video, and Coyne does not argue this. Courts of law often are recorded too, but that does not mean the videos will see the light of day. Coyne, however, went on to state that there was an implied agreement to release the video. Thats his complaint-- that he assumed the video would be released. Guess he was wrong.
• 2) Haught indicates that the format was supposed to be two sides presenting their cases. Coyne decided to start attacking Haught's views (which was not part of the plan, says Haught), quoting from his books, and according to Haught resorting to ad hominems-- none of which, aside from potential logical problems, were part of the agreed upon format. Hence why Coyne remarks that

  Haught didn’t seem to have prepared for the debate, merely rolling out his tired old trope .... I prepared pretty thoroughly, reading half a dozen of Haught’s books

  -- It was because (if Haught is correct) that the format WAS to present what your views were.

• 3) Haught also claims that the conclusion to Coyne's talk, rather than being a summary of what he had said, was a tirade about how Catholicism is the cause of all evil in the world. Myself, I dont find that to really be "debate material"; you can get into an endless debate about which religion or ideology causes the worst evil, but its not really germane in the setting they were in.

Personally, having read Coyne's initial post, he comes off as rather unpleasant-- despite no agreement in place, and no reasonable cause to think the video would be posted or recorded for anything other than archival purposes, he refuses to take no for an answer and stirs up his readers to send hatemail to two professors at a university. He continues to pester them for quite some time, and doesnt even mention on the initial post that the video is being released-- its a separate blog entry, but is easily missed if you arent browsing his entries, and means that people will likely continue attacking Haught because they do not realize that the "issue" is over. He also comes off as quite "humble", declaring himself the victor, and saying "if I were in his situation, _I_ wouldnt have acted badly".

And then what is slashdot's response? To take Coyne at his word and declare him the victor-- despite noone having seen the video. Claiming that censorship is being attempted-- despite no agreement to post the video. Claiming the video isnt being released-- even though it has since been OK'd. Its almost like the editors WANT to stir up a flamewar for no reason.

Well, at least I know that Slashdot will stay classy, read the articles, and make relevant comments, rather than mindlessly bashing how stupid and ignorant Haught must be. Way to keep that standard high.

Disclaimer-- I probably disagree with about 80% of what Haught believes.