Now available! Debate between Jerry Coyne and John Haught on "Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?"
Offline After John Haught tried to suppress his debate loss against Jerry Coyne, the video has been released by The Gaines Center and the University of Kentucky (visit here to download presentation slides and Q&A video).
Update: Jerry Coyne comments on the release of the video.
Best of all, there’s a statement from the Provost of the University of Kentucky, an estimable man whom I met at dinner:“The Bale-Boone Symposium series has a rich tradition of providing an open and frank forum for a broad range of compelling issues, ranging from legal and medical ethics to the place of poetry in our culture. This year’s session regarding the compatibility of religion and science was no exception. It led to not only a robust –and even contentious — debate between two distinguished scholars, but a conversation that continued long afterward among the participants and those who attended. That speaks to the heart of what both The Gaines Center and the University of Kentucky hope to foster – a deep dialogue regarding issues past, present and future that impact us all. With that commitment to open and ongoing dialogue in mind, the attached link contains the video of the session, along with continued communication between the two participants afterward.”
- Kumble Subbaswamy, provost
Now where did that come from? Could it reflect the fact that several of my readers—and I as well—wrote to the Provost, asking him to help release the video?
Good for you, Dr. Subbaswamy! If Drs. Haught and Rabel had only adhered to the principles of open discourse you set forth, this whole mess wouldn’t have happened.
Without further ado:
2011 Bale Boone Symposium - Science & Religion: Are They Compatible? from UK Gaines Center on Vimeo.
October 12, 2011
with Jerry Coyne and John Haught
(Posted under Irrationalities, because 'accommodationism' is an irrationality. This could also easily be posted in the 'Science' forum.)
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Thanks for posting Natural. The theologian Haught is boring and he just makes empty assertion after empty assertion.
Coyne is brilliant as always. For those who want to just get to that advance the video to the 30minute mark. Coyne hammers away
and is very quotable. Definitely worth the listen. Unfortunately the camera work was subpar. Would love to have seen the slides.
I can see why Haught wouldn't want this to go public.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
The slides are available here: http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/GainesCenter/2011_boone_video.html
Oh man, I live in the Lexington area and was really bummed when I missed this. Thanks for the share. Haught really didn't stand a chance.
And apparently I'm going to have to download roughly half the vid before I get to the good stuff. Irritable tirade!
With that minor gripe aside, has anyone noticed Rabel feeding into Haught's tendency to cover his posterior, and cautious (seemingly subtle) attempts to disarm evolution's proponents? (@00:21)
I did.
Emphasis mine.
I think it is fair to say that Coyne's quotable remarks don't stop merely within his recorded debate. They continue on his blog.
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
Update: The audience Q&A video is now available.
fuck yeah another kentuckian! i spent a lot of time in lex growing up, had friends at uk (went to centre myself), and worked at fayette mall for a few months. i've lived in slovakia for 7 years now, or i would definitely have gone to this.
man, i'm totally flashing back to playing open mic nights in the old high on rose bar (sadly now gone). lexington will always be close to my heart. had a lot of great dates there.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson