Pope wants debate with Atheists - easy to debate atheists.

[alsarg72]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 87518.html

The Vatican is planning a new initiative to reach out to atheists and agnostics in an attempt to improve the church's relationship with non-believers. Pope Benedict XVI has ordered officials to create a new foundation where atheists will be encouraged to meet and debate with some of the Catholic Church's top theologians.

...

The foundation, he said, would only be interested in "noble atheism or agnosticism, not the polemical kind – so not those atheists such as [Piergiorgio] Odifreddi in Italy, [Michel] Onfray in France, [Christopher] Hitchens and [Richard] Dawkins".

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Reasonable? Weak?

[Goat]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 87518.html

The Vatican is planning a new initiative to reach out to atheists and agnostics in an attempt to improve the church's relationship with non-believers. Pope Benedict XVI has ordered officials to create a new foundation where atheists will be encouraged to meet and debate with some of the Catholic Church's top theologians.

...

The foundation, he said, would only be interested in "noble atheism or agnosticism, not the polemical kind – so not those atheists such as [Piergiorgio] Odifreddi in Italy, [Michel] Onfray in France, [Christopher] Hitchens and [Richard] Dawkins".

...

Reasonable? Weak?

It seems to me that they hope to get the unprepared atheists in an effort to try to convert them. They also seem to want to avoid the atheists that well, know what they are talking about.

[Lux]

The foundation, he said, would only be interested in "noble atheism or agnosticism, not the polemical kind – so not those atheists such as [Piergiorgio] Odifreddi in Italy, [Michel] Onfray in France, [Christopher] Hitchens and [Richard] Dawkins".

So if they happen to meet an atheist that can knock they big hats right off in a debate, they can just claim that atheist is "too polemical" and refuse to debate him/her.

Nice dodge, your Holiness.

[WinePusher]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 87518.html

The Vatican is planning a new initiative to reach out to atheists and agnostics in an attempt to improve the church's relationship with non-believers. Pope Benedict XVI has ordered officials to create a new foundation where atheists will be encouraged to meet and debate with some of the Catholic Church's top theologians.

...

The foundation, he said, would only be interested in "noble atheism or agnosticism, not the polemical kind – so not those atheists such as [Piergiorgio] Odifreddi in Italy, [Michel] Onfray in France, [Christopher] Hitchens and [Richard] Dawkins".

...

Reasonable? Weak?

The Roman Catholic Church, and the Evangelical Protestant Churches, probably don't have the knowledge neccesary to engage in a debate on God's existence based on topics such as science, historical influences, evolutionary biology and so on.

Most Priests and Pastors usually don't study any other fields other then the prescribed seminary curriculum, which is preaching, bible and worship. They probably wouldn't have sufficent knowledge of physics, literature and history to defend God's existence to a secular audience.

Atheists like Hitchens, Barker and Dawkins are respected scholars, so if the vatican really wants to engage atheists in debate, they'd better throw out their brightest.

[Misty]

The Pope is coming to the UK in September. Hopefully Benny will face peaceful demonstrations wherever he goes! He should do the decent thing and resign, together with the rest of the Catholic hierarchy, over the child sex abuse scandal, he is believed to have turned a blind eye to paedophile priests.

[LiamOS]

I'll certainly go to that conference.

Who knows, maybe I'll write to them and ask if I can debate them.
There are many questions I'd love to ask a 'learned' Catholic.

[Lux]

I'll certainly go to that conference.

Who knows, maybe I'll write to them and ask if I can debate them.
There are many questions I'd love to ask a 'learned' Catholic.

That would be awesome, then you could tell us about it!

Honestly, I can't help but think the best way to get to debate there would be to play confused in the interview/whatever, and then during the actual debate with witnesses, bring out the smarts.

[LiamOS]

I've little doubt that, should it happen, it will be filmed, perhaps for DVD, perhaps only for Youtube.
But filmed it will be.

It actually sounds like an amazingly interesting endeavour to open up a public forum of debate. Hopefully all goes well for everybody.

[Murad]

Instead of the vatican debating with athiests, they should debate with muslims. And the listening athiests can choose which is the true path.

Christians agree with me?

[Goat]

Instead of the vatican debating with athiests, they should debate with muslims. And the listening athiests can choose which is the true path.

Christians agree with me?

Perhaps atheists have already chosen the right path. Perhaps the listening atheists can say 'Both Muslims and Christians are equally wrong'.