American Jewish University presents best-selling authors Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe in a debate about the existence of God and the role of religion and faith in society. Sam Harris is a renowned atheist and author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. Rabbi David Wolpe, of Sinai Temple, is the author of Teaching Your Children About God and Why Be Jewish. This debate is moderated by Los Angeles Times religion editor Steve Padilla.
On June 2, 2010, In Uncategorized, by admin
American Jewish University presents best-selling authors Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe in a debate about the existence of God and the role of religion and faith in society. Sam Harris is a renowned atheist and author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. Rabbi David Wolpe, of Sinai Temple, is [...]
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“We need to stop rewarding people who pretend to know things they do not know.”
This is such a profound statement, it should be taught to every child from birth.
To many parents start their children off by teaching them religion.
From this grounding in theology, the child then goes onto believing that it is okay to hate , blacks, gays, and other people who have a different religion.
Until this stops we will continue to suffer at the hand of ignorance and fear
The Rabbi is wiggling… let’s watch him flop around before Sam’s cruel gaze. MuaHAHAHAHAHA!!!
“you have two choices…” FAIL
05:29 Sounds just like Deepak Chopra with his Woo Woo.
Good to see that the Rabbi has absolutely no idea of the theory of Natural selection.
Both guys are cute, but it’s a sterile debate. When it comes to god, either you believe it or you don’t. In other words, either you have faith or you don’t. Those guys won’t prove anything. They are just showing off their intellects. It boils down to nothing.
Wolpe repeatedly says “I could give you example after example or site study after study”…then why doesn’t he? It is such a tortuously flimsy debate tactic that a high school student could punch holes in it.
Once again, arguing that religious belief might offer someone greater peace of mind does not make the belief true. Mother Theresa and the Catholic church have caused untold suffering by condemning the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS.
Wolpe talks in circles. Terrible contribution as a scholar on this subject.
Strawman…. Strawman…. This Rabbi cannot logically debate, also he doesn’t have any understanding of how we came to be.
Harris keeps equating atheist with science.
How can there be an “atheist community”?
@Keeban3
Whenever religious people are backed into a corner a point for any religion seems to be a point against atheism.
I don’t get it, why is the Rabbi promoting Christianity? Have I been living in a cave? When did Jews lose their own religion?
The BROW!
Harris destroyed this fool. Clean kill.
The rabbi is obviously outclassed in this debate by the other guys knowledge. They need to put on a much better and more experienced Rabbi to make it equal. Otherwise it gets too boring when one side gets hammered like this.
what a load of shit! Religion is mind making up things and survives by covering it up with more lies called theoly. Science concerns evidential facts and is exposed to rigorous critical examination before being excepted.
Wolpe is making the common fallacy that if science doesn’t have an explanation now, it never will, thus MY god is the only possible answer. When will you theists stop repeating this fallacy?
Science is a iterative perturbative process that improves knowledge, so it is nonsense to claim that the improvements will stop at our present level of knowledge. And your god is just not a good explanation for anything.
Wolpe is implying mother teresa did what she did purely as means to an altruistic end. Of course the reason she did them is because she thought she was doing gods work. That in itself is dishonest. If you are going to do something because you think you are going to hell of something similar you are not doing it for the right reasons.
Goodness me…I thought the Rabbi was coherent up to a certains point but then, alas, it always crumbles into pseudointellectual babble where incoherence raises its ugly head!
based on presupposed ideas of one another.. is the christian god the same as the jewish? is the totality of the universe god? is god inside, outside or both? are we god? define terms before debate. follow the example of socrates instead of manipulating conversation to broad misleading statements.. that is my 2 cents.. even though my two cents are subjective.. i lay them out for you.
what if you substitute the word ‘conciousness’ for the word god.. then we have something that is both scientific and religous at the same time. this debate, and other debates, are ill-served by not examining what god is.. there is no basis for discussion without common terms and ideas between debaters.. they are simply masterbating there own ideas without finding a common language.. religon and science can both be spiritual (depending on how you define spiritual).. it is selfish to assume
@raby760 I agree, religion doesn’t really have a solid premise so they “move the goalposts” to appeal the evolution of knowledge. Since religion is more like a fantasy, you can bend the logic and words to explain your belief and even make it sound logical, but no matter how many theists try to defend their position, they still lack the basis in which it all stems.
lol
Rabbi David Wolpe is good at bending words, and he’s not intellectually honest with himself. He made so many contradictions and a lot of assumptions, which he is so obivious to.
@ POSITION 8:30 A RESPONSE… WE PARTICIPATE IN THIS PHYSICAL UNIVERSE WITH OUR BRAINS AND OUR BODYS. Because Novicane Numbs a tooth and an Icepick distroys lobes of the brain, does not destory, the spirit of man, or speak at all to the order contained within the DNA molecule or the outer reaches of space…. It is the pride of man, groping in darkness that wants to reduce wonder and destory the LOGIC of God’s creation, big or small….. Ick!!!!!