Debate: Does the Universe have a purpose?

Debate: Does the Universe have a purpose? 

There is one point that I want to mention. Richard Dawkins refused to debate with William Lane Craig one-on-one. He did not appear to the debate on October 25, 2011 in Oxford. However, one year before that, on November 13, 2010 they did meet in Puebla, Mexico. It was not one-on-one debate. It was a panel three-on-three debate on the subject Does the Universe have a purpose? The participants were: Matt Ridley, Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins vs. Rabbi David Wolpe, William Lane Craig, Douglas Geivett.

It is interesting to note that one year before, on November 29, 2009, Richard Dawkins claimed that he would never debate with William Lane Craig:



This is how William Lane Craig described their first meeting:

I am currently in Mexico to participate in a conference called Ciudad de las Ideas, which is a conference modeled on the TED conference in the US. It features lots of high tech people, sociologists, psychologists, economists, scientists, etc.

As part of the conference they´re having a panel of six of us debate on the question ¨Does the Universe Have a Purpose?¨ Well, to my surprise, I just found out that one of the three persons on the other side is Richard Dawkins! It´s true! I met him the other night. When he came my way, I stuck out my hand and introduced myself and said, "I´m surprised to see that you´re on the panel."

He replied, "And why not?"

I said, ¨Well, you´ve always refused to debate me."

His tone suddenly became icy cold. "I don´t consider this to be a debate with you. The Mexicans invited me to participate, and I accepted." At that, he turned away.

"Well, I hope we have a good discussion," I said.

"I very much doubt it," he said and walked off.

So it was a pretty chilly reception! The debate is Saturday morning, should you think of us. I´ll give an update after I get back.

So, Dawkins did not consider this event as a debate with Craig. Well, it was not their one-on-one debate. However, it was still a debate in which they both participated. So, his behavior seems to me quite dishonest and dubious.

Here is the video (the beginning part is in Spanish, but the debate itself is in English):



Here are a couple of reviews of this debate:
http://thinkingmatters.org.nz/2010/11/does-the-universe-have-a-purpose-a-review-of-the-panel-debate-with-craig-and-dawkins/
http://12tuesday.com/richard-dawkins-et-al-vs-william-lane-craig-et-al-debate-review/

Well, I was not quite impressed with this debate. It did not seem to be productive. It seems that there were too many people and their time was too limited. In any case, the atheist team did not win. It was very far from that