William Lane Craig and Sean Carroll | 'God and Cosmology' | 2014 Greer Heard Forum

On Friday, February 21st, 2014, philosopher and theologian, Dr William Lane Craig, was invited by the Greer Heard Forum to debate Dr Sean Carroll, an atheist theoretical physicist. The topic of debate was, "God and Cosmology: The Existence of God in Light of Contemporary Cosmology." The rigorous debate was concluded by a lengthy question and answer period with the audience.

We welcome your comments in the Reasonable Faith forums:

[fraser_mr]

I'm still waiting for William Lane Craig to demonstrate his magic in a lab.

[gregjones]

Be honest. Craig got his can handed to him. No contest.

[TheTenthAvenger]

This is happens when the athiest debater is an actual professional scientist: Suddenly the thiest is barely arguing for the beginning of the unvierse.

[ReasonBeing]

Dr. Craig is amazing at moving goalposts in an admittedly elegant way. His confidence and delivery of illogical false dilemmas, shows that one can accomplish anything with enough practice.

[robinsrevision]

Craig has this standard and well practiced move of putting on this sing-song incredulous voice and saying "I can't believe that atheists think that something can just pop out of nothing". Carroll gives him good reasons why the expression "something popping out of nothing" is incoherent and applies everyday intuitions to cosmological situations where we would expect those intuitions to fail. Craig's response to this is to again put on his sing-song incredulous voice and say "I can't believe that atheists think that something can just pop out of nothing". He is way out of his depth, scientifically and philosophically.

[juzhang]

I still don’t understand why WLC will debate Sean regarding cosmology😂 Sean is a full time theoretical physicist lmao

[lanceking]

Alternative title: What Happens when a Rational Honest Person Debates an Irrational Dishonest Person.

[KenWalter-du]

Craig is simply outclassed on the science here. You have to be a dishonest theist to think that Craig won this.
You're lying to yourself

[sentientai]

Watching religious people try to explain science to a scientist is like watching a chimp try to start a fire.

[CesarClouds]

I'm still waiting for Dr. Craig to demonstrate the supernatural.

[nickguy]

This video should start with a health warning. I have been head-desking for 27 mins as Craig fails physics again and again.

[claymanning]

This is the one debate that I think WLC struggled in. Sean was so well mannered and gave respectful attacks to theism. Didn’t lose his cool once. Rebutted the points very clearly.

Beautiful debate as a whole. One I’ve been able to listen to more than a few times.

[Hamheel]

What does a debate like this on deism really accomplish for theists? Fine. There’s a clockmaker god who built the universe and started the ticking. Now what? Clockmaker god or infinite universe? There are no implications to either answer. That must be very depressing for theists. All that energy and you’re no closer to proving the clockmaker is YOUR favorite god.

“You cannot get from deism to theism except by a series of extraordinarily generous—to yourself—assumptions. The deist has all his work still ahead of him to show that it leads to revelation, to redemption, to salvation or to suspensions of the natural order; in which, hitherto, you'd be putting all of your faith—all your evidence is on scientific and natural evidence.” -Hitchens

[DannyNicholson]

Craig ventured out of his wheelhouse and got punished. Carrol won it by a landslide. I applaud the attempt though, that could not have been easy.

[AtamMardes]

♦"Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool."
♦"Religion allows fools by the millions to believe what only lunatics could believe on their own."
♦"Only fools revere the supernatural myths & fictions just because a book claims itself to be the holy truth."
♦"The delusional religious fools are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt."
♦"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
♦"It's difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."

[theperipateticgumshoe]

WLC doesn’t even argue for what he believes. He instead argues for something slightly more plausible as a distraction.

[mainecoonmami]

It’s crazy how Craig stands there and exasperated how the universe has NO evidence that it’s eternal, and yet claims an eternal, gendered, Christian god. It’s like- Do you hear yourself?!

[nooneatall]

Craig disagreeing with the author of the guth velanken theorem strikes me as profoundly dishonest. He has been corrected and still references it smh

[tedgrant]

I am perfectly happy to admit that the universe has changed.
It was very small and now it is very big. Why ? I don't know.
But I don't think my ignorance is evidence for God.

[Encounterpart]

I'm from 10 years into the future when Dr Craig defends the Canaanite slaughter on the Within Reason podcast. 10 years ago, Sean Carroll really highlighted Dr Craig's "power of pretend" by contrast.