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The University of Idaho hosted a public debate, to a crowd of over 800, on February 27, 2013. The debate was participated in by Andrew Sullivan, blogger and former senior editor of The Atlantic, and Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church of Moscow, ID, author and educator. The topic of the debate: Is Civil Marriage for Gay Couples Good for Society?
Battle of the Beards
Video of the debate and the MP3 audio have been made available by CanonWired.
In the week following, Pastor Wilson has published his prepared remarks and some follow-up thoughts over at his blog.
The first response was posted on the night of the debate over at First Things, by Dr. Peter J Leithart of Trinity House Institute for Biblical, Liturgical, and Cultural Studies in Birmingham, AL.
Mr. Sullivan has also blogged his response over at The Dish. Ironically, Sullivan has reused an image, that he posted in the Atlantic back in 2009, of a Darwin poster that riffs on (or perhaps rips off) the ubiquitous Obama “Hope” poster design by Shepard Fairey.
One might state the basic premise, of the Darwinian Theory of Evolution, by saying, “the universe doesn’t care.” Nature “selects” which genetic variation survives based on that host species’ prowess in the struggle for existence. Namely, a given species’ ability to obtain sustenance and further its genetic legacy through procreation. Last I checked, same-sex couplings of human beings do not result in offspring. So one might ask, how evolved are homophiliacs? Can we agree to leave Darwin out of this? Evolutionists have been moving on past the “third leg of neo-atheism” for years.
For more on dealing with the New Atheists, see Dr. Mitchell O Stokes’ recent book A Shot of Faith to the Head (Thomas Nelson, 2012); Dr. Stokes is a Senior Fellow of Philosophy at New Saint Andrews College, where Pastor Wilson is a Senior Fellow of Theology.
Also, be sure to visit the remarks of the moderator of last week’s debate Peter Hitchens, who is the author of The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith, and brother of New Atheist Christopher Hitchens (who died in 2011 of esophageal cancer). The circle of neo-Atheistic debate is a much less interesting world without him.
There is no God, and I hate him
Author’s Postscript:
Denny Burk, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College, has a couple articles regarding this debate: Why he thought Pastor Wilson lost and Is Polygamy, Bestiality, Pedophilia, and Necrophila the logical conclusion in the marriage rights debate
03/10/2013
In an effort to maintain this post, as what Pastor Doug Wilson described as a clearing house article for the Wilson v Sullivan debate and the ongoing “gay marriage” discussion, I am adding a couple of links from Alastair Roberts as an addendum to the above-resources.
The first comes from the blog of Steven Wedgeworth (editor) and J Peter Escalante (co-editor): The Calvinist International. I find this to be an excellent, scholarly forum.
Why Arguments Against Gay Marriage Are Usually Bad » Alastair Roberts
For arguments at length for the creational order of heterosexual marriage:
The Institution of Marriage, Same-Sex Unions, and Procreation » Alastair Roberts, Alastair’s Adversaria
PSS:
And with this, I think I’ll close out this post: Pastor Wilson responds to Alastair Roberts
And CanonWired has posted post-debate commentary with Doug Wilson & Peter Hitchens (04/18/2013)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BbEQn7_4kgU<>
[…] Eley has posted a helpful note over at The Kuyperian Commentary on the recent debate held at the University of Idaho on the topic of homosexual […]
[…] to a world whose ears may be closed by God, as Peter Leithart said in his summation of the Wilson-Sullivan gay marriage debate. If we do want to seek to be persuasive, then we need to address the moral imagination. The best […]