Whenever I bring debate DVDs to work and leave them on my desk, men who like sports more than apologetics ask me: “Was there a winner?” People don’t want to talk about opinions, they only want to talk about things that we know. A while back, there was a formal debate featuring William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens. And yes, there was a winner. One of the speakers admitted defeat.

Here is a video clip of an exchange they had in their debate at the massive Biola University showdown:

Isn’t that interesting?

Do you know how to have a conversation with an atheist? You just have to talk to them about the things we really know to be true. For example, that the universe had a beginning, just like scientists said that it did. That the universe is fine-tuned for allowing complex, embodied life. That our galaxy, star and planet are fine-tuned to provide us with a habitable place to live. The the origin of life required an intelligent designer to do the coding. These are not “faith” topics that we “share”. These are facts. And when we tell an atheist these facts, we are not sharing. We are informing about what is true. In some cases, we are correcting false beliefs.

Here’s a quote from famous atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel of New York University:

“In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions and religious institutions, in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies, and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper–namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers.

I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”

(”The Last Word” by Thomas Nagel, Oxford University Press: 1997)

It really makes me think that Christian churches should be more interested in showing these debates, and in learning how to debate like William Lane Craig. Sadly, most churches do not focus on the things that work. Most churches to not want to win. They want to lose. That’s why we put charismatic leftists in charge, who don’t know anything – like Russell Moore and Beth Moore. Because we don’t want to have answers. We just want to lose. Lost the culture. Lose congregants. Lose our children to the secular left.

America today is in religious decline. But it’s not because we don’t have the arguments and the evidence. It’s because most churches have decided to focus on “compassion” and “kindness” and “hearing the voice of God” about their own desires and needs.

If you haven’t seen this debate between William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens, then you should watch it. Yes there is a winner. Yes something was decided. It was not just two people sharing their opinions. There was a final score.