Debate over existence of God shown on ABC-TV

Debate over existence of God shown on ABC-TV

Allie Martin
OneNewsNow.com
May 10, 2007

The hosts of a popular weekly Christian television show squared off against two atheists as part of a debate about the existence of God this past weekend. Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron of The Way of the Master television show debated atheist Brian Sapient and a woman named Kelly for a segment on ABC-TV. The debate was shown Wednesday on ABC.com and segments were broadcast on Nightline.

 

During Comfort's opening statement, he said the existence of God could be proven without using faith or the Bible. He then gave logical reasons to believe in the existence of God.

"When I look at a painting, how can I know there was a painter?" Comfort asked. "Well, the painting is absolute, 100-percent scientific proof there was a painter," he said. "You can't have a painting without a painter. I don't need faith to believe in a painter -- all I need is eyes that can see and a brain that works."

Sapient, who is a member of a group calling itself the Rational Response Squad, describes himself as an agnostic atheist. He said there is no scientific proof for God.

"Atheism is merely the absence of belief in any god," Sapient asserted. "We are all born as atheists; we must be taught to be theists," he said. "And as an agnostic atheist, I am not making an absolute claim that no god exists. I am making an absolute claim that today I don't have a belief in one, and I'm sorry that Ray's arguments didn't help change that."

The debate was suggested by Comfort after he saw a segment on ABC's Nightline about the Rational Response Squad and how that group encouraged people to videotape themselves blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Much of the debate centered on the beginning of the universe and the nature of God.

At one point, Comfort's Way of the Master co-host, Kirk Cameron, addressed the issue of origins. "If you're going to keep going back to the beginning, you've got to go back all the way and say something's got to be infinite," he observed. "We believe that God is infinite, that he dwells in eternity, and that he's revealed the fact that he has created the universe by speaking it into existence."

During his opening remarks, Comfort used God's moral law, the Ten Commandments, to show people their transgression of God's laws and their need for a savior. Similar presentations are available online at Comfort's website WayOfTheMaster.com.

Source: http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/05/debate_over_existence_of_god_s.php