William Lane Craig Debates

I enjoy listening to philosophical and/or religious debates, but ultimately it's more for entertainment purposes than anything else. The problem with debates is that just because someone can't come up with a good response to something off the top of their head while on stage doesn't mean that there aren't any good responses to it. I was able to think up some remarkably witty comebacks to the bullies in grade school, but they usually came several hours after school let out.

One of the most prolific debaters in the last couple of decades has been William Lane Craig. He generally debates other scholars on the existence of God or the historical Jesus. His website had several transcribed debates in which he has taken part, and I also just discovered that many of his debates are on YouTube. So I thought I would provide links to them, stating who he debated, and the title of the debate in question. The videos are mostly in 10 minute increments, and most of them automatically go to the next one in the series when each one finishes. You should be warned, though, that it eats up your bandwidth.

His opponents vary in how well they do; Peter Atkins, for example, is just a caricature of thoughtless scientism. Here's a brief excerpt from that video to give you a taste of it:



So below are the debates separated by whether they are videos or transcribed. [Update (26 Oct): A much better, and more complete, summary of Craig's debates, with links to the texts or audio/video recordings, is here. Via DI1.]

On video:
vs. Peter Atkins: What Is the Evidence For/Against the Existence of God?
vs. Frank Zindler: Atheism vs. Christianity: Where Does the Evidence Point?
vs. Torbjörn Tännsjö: God and Morality
vs. Peter Slezak: Atheism vs. Christianity
vs. Bill Cooke: Is God a Delusion?
vs. Bart Ehrman: Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?
vs. James Crossley: Was Jesus Bodily Raised from the Dead?
vs. Shabir Ally: Did Jesus of Nazareth Physically Rise from the Dead?
vs. Shabir Ally: What Must I Do to Be Saved?
vs. Jamal Badawi: The Concept of God in Islam and Christianity
vs. John Shook: Does God Exist?
vs. Antony Flew: Does God Exist?
vs. Austin Dacey: Does God Exist?
vs. Theodore Drange: Does God Exist?

Transcribed debates:
vs. Kai Nielson: God, Morality, and Evil
vs. Richard Taylor: Is the Basis of Morality Natural or Supernatural?
vs. Michael Tooley: A Classic Debate on the Existence of God
vs. Ray Bradley: Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
vs. Bart Ehrman (also above): Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?
vs. Corey Washington: Does God Exist?
vs. Quentin Smith: Does God Exist?
vs. Quentin Smith: Does God Exist?
vs. Douglas Jesseph: Does God Exist?
vs. Massimo Pigliucci: Does God Exist?