DBT01: Call For Judges, Scoring Suggestions

February 10, 2012

This post is an open discussion for the confirmed judges (Daniel Vecchio, Matt DeStefano and Andrés Ruiz) in next week’s debate between Peter Hurford and I. We also have a tentative fourth judge (Adamoriens), who I will be happy to implement should we be able to locate a willing fifth judge (to preserve an odd number of judges, with Peter’s consent of course). Feel free to volunteer yourself or suggest somebody else, but keep in mind the fifth judge must be a theist (since Adamoriens would effectively qualify as an atheist in this debate). I’ve got a few people in mind, we’ll see what happens. Regardless of whether we end up with three judges or five, this debate is scheduled to kickoff Wednesday February 15th, so we should all talk about scoring. Ultimately, it is up to the judges, but I want the thread open so we can get as much feedback as possible.

We talked a little about scoring debates a few posts back, everybody might want to read that first.






DBT01: Peter Hurford vs. cl On Needless Suffering

February 4, 2012

Our first debate of the year is officially scheduled as follows:

  • Opening Statement by Peter Hurford (2000 words), due February 15th.
  • My rebuttal (1500 words), due February 19th.
  • Peter’s rejoinder (1500 words), due February 23rd.
  • My second rebuttal (1500 words), due February 27th.
  • Peter’s closing statement (1000 words), due March 2nd.
  • My closing statement (500 words), due March 8th.

As explained on the debates page, Peter will argue that needless suffering exists, ergo belief in the traditional Abrahamic God is not justified (NOTE: in our email chain, Peter and I agreed—for whatever reason at that time—that we would not be debating the “ergo” part). The judges for this debate are Daniel Vecchio (Theist), AndrĂ©s Ruiz (Agnostic), and Matt DeStefano (Atheist).