Debates are mod­ern glad­i­a­tor contests—predicated on the blunt force of the oppo­nents’ foren­sic sta­mi­na, charis­ma, and per­son­al con­vic­tion. Speak­ers lack­ing in per­son­al­i­ty make for tedious debaters, and sub­stance seems to mat­ter lit­tle when par­ti­sans gath­er to cheer on their cham­pi­on. Rarely do rhetor­i­cal spec­ta­cles sway the faith­ful. At least in our time, they tend to seem more like com­pet­ing pep ral­lies. We’ve learned, for exam­ple, that such high pro­file events as U.S. pres­i­den­tial debates have lit­tle effect on the out­come of elec­tions. But ver­bal con­tests over who will make the best Leader of the Free World can seem mod­est next to debates between the­olo­gians and philoso­phers over the exis­tence of God. After all, we’ve heard more or less the same argu­ments for cen­turies now, and no one’s any clos­er to a “proof.” And though I’m not aware of any­one who argues thus, there is no way to dis­prove God’s exis­tence either.

Nonethe­less, with the rise of reli­gious fer­vor world­wide, and rejec­tion of the same by vocif­er­ous sec­u­lars, we’ve seen so-called “New Athe­ists” mount chal­lenge after chal­lenge to the author­i­ty and valid­i­ty of reli­gious institutions—primarily those rep­re­sent­ing the big three monotheisms. The philo­soph­i­cal­ly inclined reli­gious have their heavy­weights as well. Bio­la Uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor of phi­los­o­phy and evan­gel­i­cal Chris­t­ian William Lane Craig has tak­en on the man­tle of defend­er not only of his par­tic­u­lar brand of faith but of the exis­tence of God gen­er­al­ly. Craig is a skilled orator—his fans like to point out that he “wins” all of his debates, though what exact­ly that means is unclear. His crit­ics call him every­thing from “dis­hon­est” and “sleazy” to an apol­o­gist for geno­cide and reli­gious­ly moti­vat­ed pseu­do­science. What­ev­er you think of Craig, he cer­tain­ly does draw a crowd. But so do his most famous antag­o­nists. Today, we bring you two such exis­tence of God debates: at the top, see Craig debate the unflap­pable Christo­pher Hitchens on his home turf of Bio­la. And direct­ly above, he takes on Sam Har­ris at Notre Dame.

You may be won­der­ing, if you’ve fol­lowed these squab­bles at all, whether the infa­mous evo­lu­tion­ary biol­o­gist Richard Dawkins has stepped into the ring with Craig. He has. Dawkins appeared with skep­ti­cal authors Michael Sher­mer and Matt Rid­ley in an intel­lec­tu­al wrestle­ma­nia of sorts at a Mex­i­can con­fer­ence called “Ciu­dad de las Ideas” (City of Ideas). On the oth­er side of the stage sat Craig, his col­league Doug Geivett, and rab­bi David Wolpe. You can see the event above—each speak­er gets up and steps into a lit­er­al ring, com­plete with bright red ropes, and the result is less a debate than bewil­der­ing series of meta­phys­i­cal sales pitch­es. Dawkins him­self did not con­sid­er it a debate. Though he’s made plen­ty of ene­mies among athe­ists and believ­ers alike, accused of intol­er­ance, slop­py rea­son­ing, sex­ism, and worse, Dawkins has won adher­ents for declar­ing a prin­ci­pled stand against appear­ing with Craig in a true debate for­mat, cit­ing Craig’s “dark side” as a “deplorable apol­o­gist for geno­cide.” As with all these attacks and ripostes, not to men­tion the uni­verse-sized ques­tions, you’ll sim­ply have to make up your own mind.

via Metafil­ter

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Christo­pher Hitchens: No Deathbed Con­ver­sion for Me, Thanks, But it was Good of You to Ask

The Unbe­liev­ers, A New Film Star­ring Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Wern­er Her­zog, Woody Allen, & Cor­mac McCarthy

Reli­gion: Free Cours­es Online

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness