SisyphusRedeemed
Alvin Plantinga (Notre Dame) delivers a paper at the 2009 Central Division of the American Philosophical Association in Chicago, entitled “Religion and Science: Where the Real Conflict Lies.” Daniel Dennett (Tufts) comments.
No, this is not my recording, but yes, I was at this talk (I actually ask the very first question in the Q&A (I didn’t express myself well, but Plantinga seemed to get the jist). I tried to record it, but my camera wasn’t working. So I found this recording online, and thought the YouTube community might enjoy.
Source
Dennett is such a cheap polemicist compared to Plantinga. Learn some manners, Santa Claus. Leading atheists are like autistics with no social sense, whatsoever. Nothing but bombthrowers.
I'll grant you that he isn't very polite. He should be more respectful to his opponent. It would set a better tone and reflect better on him as a person.
At the same time, however, his manners have no bearing on the validity or soundness of his argument. At the end of the day, criticizing atheists as rude is neither here nor there; what matters most is the quality of their reasoning.
And on that measure, Dennett trumps Plantinga easily.
@SisyphusRedeemed You can't be serious?
@SisyphusRedeemed Why is it even impolite? Does Dennett make (or attempt to make) Plantinga's argument look any more comically ludicrous than it is?
If not, surely stopping short of offering the frankest reductio of one's interlocutor's argument it appears to deserve is at best supererogatory in a public debate.
I get the impression you've met Plantinga and he's a nice affable old bloke, and so are inclined to go soft on him (just a surmise).
@anthonyhoskin IF you think that's rude…you're rather sheltered.
Literally ANYTHING is compatible with the "god hypothesis", even evolution (though utterly superfluous to any explanation). When one is in the realms of fantasy, and basically making shit up, anything goes.