Tag Archives: Big Bang

Polemics

MUST-READ: Doug Groothuis explains how science confirms the beginning of the universe

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Post is here on the Constructive Curmudgeon.

No excerpt is possible, you must read the whole post.

Evidences cited for the origin of the universe (the Big Bang):

  • Einstein’s theory of general relativity (and experimental confirmation of the theory)
  • Hubble’s observations of red-shifted light from distant galaxies
  • Measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation
  • Confirmed predictions of light element abundances (H and He abundances)
  • The second law of thermodynamics

When you present the kalam argument, you should present it exactly the way Doug does here. You should hang the entire argument on the progress of science. Once upon a time before science, there was ignorance. But now we know better, thanks to the progress of science. Science disproved atheism. Five times over.

Videos

Video of the Stanford debate between Jay Richards and Christopher Hitchens

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Remember this debate?

Atheism vs. Theism and The Scientific Evidence of Intelligent Design
Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 4pm PST, Stanford University

Christopher Hitchens — Contributing editor to Vanity Fair; visiting professor, New School in New York; author of God is Not Great.
VS.
Jay W. Richards — Research Fellow and Director of Acton Media at the Acton Institute; co-author, with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery.

I just found the 10 videos in a youtube playlist. Each video is about 10 minutes.

Part 1 is just introductory, so I skipped it.

Here’s part 2, which is the start Hitchens’ opening speech:

Part 3 is the rest of Hitchens and the start of Richards’ opening speech:

And part 4, which is the rest of Richards’ opening speech:

You can click through to the playlist for the rest. Or you can listen to the full MP3 audio provided by Brian Auten of Apologetics 315.

This is the one where Richards gives his famous line “A sneer is not an argument and insults do not constitute evidence”. Richards has his Ph.D in philosophy from Princeton University, and he is extremely careful with logic and arguments.

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Videos

Video of William Lane Craig explaining the Kalam cosmological argument

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This is the video from his appearance at Saddleback Church (Rick Warren) that got such a big response. Saddleback is a pretty ordinary church, which lots of people with different levels of knowledge. How did Bill explain the Kalam argument to so many different ordinary people?

Watch and see!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

    You can also find a more technical version of the lecture here. This version is based on a research paper published in an astrophysics journal, and was delivered to an audience of students and faculty, including atheist physicist Victor Stenger and prominent atheist philosopher Michael Tooley, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Craig has previously debated Stenger and Tooley. And they both asked him questions in the Q&A of this lecture.

    You might also be interested in this exchange in which William Lane Craig takes on prominent atheist Daniel Dennett.

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