{"id":15462,"date":"2012-01-22T16:35:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T21:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=15462"},"modified":"2012-01-22T16:35:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T21:35:25","slug":"richard-dawkins-to-debate-rowan-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/richard-dawkins-to-debate-rowan-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Dawkins to debate Rowan Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The event<\/a> is actually billed as a \u201cDialogue\u201d \u2013 a mini-indaba, no doubt \u2013 and will take place on February 23rd at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. That\u2019s the same venue where Dawkins didn’t debate William Lane Craig<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fact that Dawkins has agreed to this \u201cDialogue\u201d is a measure of his confidence that he will make mincemeat out of Rowan Williams.<\/p>\n

Judging by this clip, I suspect his confidence is not entirely misplaced:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

My favourite part of this exchange comes at the point where Rowan tries to explain miracles, specifically the Virgin Birth:<\/p>\n

Rowan:<\/strong> Here you have a long history of preparation for the coming of God in a new way, here you have a particular life, that of Mary opening itself up to the action of God in a certain way and then there is an opening. Something comes through, something fresh happens which is not \u2013 if you like \u2013 a suspension of the laws of nature but nature itself opening up to its own depths \u2013 something coming through.<\/p>\n

Dawkins: <\/strong>I\u2019m not sure what that means.<\/p>\n

Rowan: <\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s poetic language.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It sounds to me more like a description of a cosmic bowel movement than \u201cpoetic language.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The event is actually billed as a \u201cDialogue\u201d \u2013 a mini-indaba, no doubt \u2013 and will take place on February 23rd at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. That\u2019s the same venue where Dawkins didn’t debate William Lane Craig. The fact that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[277],"tags":[2238,2241],"class_list":["post-15462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rowan-williams","tag-richard-dawkins","tag-rowan-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}