The Warren-Flew Debate, Thomas Warren, National Christian Press, Kentucky, pp247 The Warren-Flew Debate by Dr. Thomas B. Warren is basically a “cleaned up” transcription of the televised debate which took place in Denton, Tx at the North Texas State University campus in 1976. This debate consisted of Dr. Antony Flew and Dr. Thomas Warren who were both trained in philosophy and the utilization of logic. Both men were very well esteemed in their respective fields. The respect they earned in their fields helped to create quite the buzz over this debate. Some even calling it the “debate of the century”. From the onset of the debate, it was established that Dr. Flew held and would would defend the position “I know that God does not exist” and Dr. Warren held and defended …show more content…
Flew was to remain in the affirmative, thus making his case for his argument “I know that God does NOT exist”, he failed to do so. Dr. Flew continuously made arguments to attack Christianity and beliefs held there-in instead of offering the evidence he should have as to why he “knew” God does not exist. Dr. Warren pointed this out several times, and even gave Dr. Flew several points with which to use in the affirmative, but Dr. Flew simply refused to do so. In fact, at one point, Dr. Flew made a point concerning the “theist” that Dr. Warren even concurred with. The following is the conversation which occurred concerning this point: “Dr. Flew spent a great deal of his time about religious experience. Did you hear me say anything about “religious experience”? Did I make any argument thus and so that “someone has had a religious experience and therefore God exists?” I said nothing at all about that. Dr. Flew, I fight that as well as you do. There are people all over this country who claim “Oh a miracle occurred, a miracle occurred here and there.” “Well, let’s see one.” “No, it happened over yonder. Somebody else knows how and where it
John Scopes, a substitute biology teacher was arrested and charged with violating the Butler Act, a Tennessee law which prohibited teachers from teaching the Darwin Theory of Evolution in a science-related course. The American Civil Liberties Union created a plan to find a teacher willing to teach evolution in order to test the Butler Act, which forbade the essence that anyone teaching any theory that shunned the Biblical story of creationism. Scopes agreed to be arrested and have the case be taken to court. However, Scopes had simply reviewed the textbook chapter on evolution. The traditionalists would see this as a threat to their interests and the issue hit the country stronger than a tornado. Everyone was glued to their radios—it was the first broadcasted radio trial--except the campers and hundreds of reporters near the Dayton, Tennessee courthouse. Traditionalists would be outraged by the appearance of speakeasies, flappers, illegal boozing, popular activities of the Roaring Twenties and especially the Darwinian Theory. Their strong Christian beliefs from the Holy Bible stated how God created the world and man and woman. A traditionalist’s beliefs would not accept the idea of evolution because the Bible said that Man did not evolve but was created by God—the Divine Creation in one day.
(1) Kelly, Thomas (2005). “The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement.” Oxford Studies in Epistemology. Eds. Tamar Szabo Gendler and John Hawthorne. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pg.1 – 36.
The argument structure of the text is well orginized and very clear to understan. It contains lots of logical reasoning which you can see later in history really helps African-Americans become equal in society. The argument was also very well supported and gave lots og good reasoning to what and why they wanted that. Thomas Jerffersons quote "We hold these truthes to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This quote later helps the freedom of slaves and them becoming equal human beings in society and are able to vote and have all the same right as white people and also means no more segragation.
The debate team of Wiley College faced many colleges to be recognized and finally in the end winning a debate against the reigning debating champions, Harvard University. One of the debaters who caught my attention was James Farmer Jr., the youngest on the team that started out as an alternative. James Farmer sought recognition from adults and wanted to show everyone he was capable of debating. James Farmer incorporates a lot of Ethos and Pathos into his speech making, allowing him to leave his audience filled with emotions and in awe. Although James Farmer interested me, especially the way he presented his final speech, James Farmer and I are very different in the way we deliver our speeches.
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe”( Douglass). This famous quote epitomizes the philosophies of Frederick Douglass, in which he wanted everyone to be treated with dignity; if everyone was not treated with equality, no one person or property would be safe harm. His experience as a house slave, field slave and ship builder gave him the knowledge to develop into a persuasive speaker and abolitionist. In his narrative, he makes key arguments to white abolitionist and Christians on why slavery should be abolished. The key arguments that Frederick Douglass tries to vindicate are that slavery denies slaves of their identity, slavery is also detrimental for the slave owner, and slavery is ungodly.
Charles, T. (n.d.). A Response to HJ McCloskey’s “On Being An Atheist”. Retrieved from Carry your cross: http://charlestinsley.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/a-response-to-hj-mccloskeys-on-being-an-atheist/
Frederick Douglass is known as one of the most prominent African American figures in the Civil War, serving as a consultant to President Abraham Lincoln, an acquaintance to William Lloyd Garrison, giving many civil rights lectures, and highly influencing the Emancipation Proclamation. Frederick Douglass is known for his abilities as an abolitionist, orator, writer, and social reformer.
Stenger, Victor. J. 2007. God: The Failed Hypothesis—How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist. New York: Prometheus Books.
Perelman, Chaim. From _The New Rhetoric: A Theory of Practical Reasoning_. In Bizzell and Herzberg. 1384-1409.
A slave acquaintance of Douglass. Is highly superstitious and stands in the Narrative as a representative of all uneducated, superstitious slaves. She is kind to Douglass when Douglass runs away from Covey's, but the Narrative also implies that she may have informed William Freeland about Douglass's plans to escape; gives Douglass a root to keep him safe from harm.
This book is telling a story about two African American boys (Wes A and Wes P) who have the same name and grew up at same community, but they have a very different life. The author, Wes A, begins his life in a tough Baltimore neighborhood and end up as a Rhodes Scholar, Wall Streeter, and a white house fellow; The other Wes Moore begins at the same place in Baltimore , but ends up in prison for the rest of his life. Then why do they have the same experience, but still have a totally different life? I will agree here that environment (family environment, school education environment and society environment) is one of the biggest reasons for their different.
... a Moral Monstrosity.” In Dynamic Argument. Ed. Robert Lamm and Justin Everett. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. 425-26.
Whalen, Charles and Barbara, The Longest Debate, Seven Locks Press, Washington D.C.:1985. Web. 3 July 2015.
On the other hand, many well-known scientists now admit that certain discoveries tend to indicate that God rather does exist than not. The problem, I suggest, lies in certain preconceptions. If we picture God as a person, then the question comes up: where is God?
Melchert, Norman. The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. 4th ed. Toronto: McGraw Hill Companies, 2002.