I'm fine with Spyman and abgemacht judging if they want to do it.

ok let me try to get them to agree.

however, we need to clear this up before moving on:

It was my understanding that all four members of each team would collectively nominate two judges each and a third would be agreed on by all eight.

There was no obligation to choose "opposing" judges nor is it necessarily assumed that atheists have to choose atheists and Christians Christians. So... what's our verdict on that?

Once we get that sorted I can start sending the PMs and emails with some specific requests and instructions and get this thing rolling, maybe to finish up at the start of July.

Putin, do we want to do the historicity of Jesus/Resurrection?

Aha! Another pair!

Putin did say he would debate that, I think, so that makes

Atheists:

Putin33
obiwanobiwan

Christians:

CrazyAnglican
dipplayer2004

Halfway there. Still need to figure out the judging, though.

People aren't reading this thread anymore though.. if I don't get shouted at for spamming I might create a new thread, sound good yall?

Stop spamming!

I thought we had PE v. Semck on the Rationality of Belief.

No slur intended, but Abgemacht is not a neutral party.

I know, we're supposed to have some Atheist/Agonstic Judges, some Christian/Theist Judges, and then Thucy's Moderator...something like that?

Are you partaking, Mujus?

I'd personally invite you (I did in the title, after all) it'll be fun...

You've clearly something to say, and clearly a passion--no Christ pun intended--as you have that Bible Reading thread that you maintain...

Why not share your thoughts on the stage with intellectual fellow and foe alike?

I came and talked on your thread...care to have a go on ours?

I will post on here again tonight. As promised, I've been really busy this week. Sorry.

We'll wait for semck or PE to get back to us on what they decided.

Abgemacht isn't necessarily supposed to be neutral.

No one has to pick judges based on any particular criteria, you can do it for your own reasons. To be clear there are five judges:

Two judges chosen by consensus from the four Christian debaters
Two judges chosen by consensus from the four atheist debaters
One judge chosen by consensus from all the debaters

As long as those conditions are met, the judges can be anyone so long as they're willing and also prove that they're going to take judging seriously.

Possible judges mentioned have been:

abgemacht
spyman
Mujus
and me, have I missed other suggestions up to now?

We can't truly begin selecting until each four member team has been established, but we can start nominating or throwing out some names.

Also I assume you are willing to let me be the moderator, because no one has said anything about it.

Anyway current roster

Christians......................Atheists.......................Topic

1. semck.....................President Eden.............Rationality of belief??
2. CrazyAnglican............obiwan......................Christianity is a force for good
3. dipplayer2004.............Putin33.....................Historicity of ressurrection
4. ??

Just a reminder to all that once we have the participants chosen and ready I will write some kind of rules summary and post it here for one final chance to object and create a final version. Once that's done I will email everyone involved explaining it once again, and it will start. After it's done there will be a google doc transcript, and I will also post one or four threads with the debate transcripts and judge opinions. Following this first post will be two posts which allow people to vote for the side they want.

It wouldn't be cool to kick you out as moderator now that you've done so much to get things going.

It's fine with me. I'd like to judge or moderate or both or neither, helping out has been fun too and I'll get to enjoy the results regardless. I just didn't want to presume.

I guess I'll be a fourth participant if that has not already been decided (I'm an atheist).

if nobody else wants to (i am more than willing to give it up if anybody else wants it) i will join as well (Christian side)

Yes, sure, the resurrection is a topic I had proposed earlier.

Did you not Putin? I thought you did. Or maybe you're not be sarcastic. Lol.

Well okay we've got Fortress Door and Mario4Ever willing to debate if you guys can get a topic drummed up.

I wasn't sarcastic.

okay cool lol

so putin's in.

we're close

@ Obi--You wrote: "I came and talked on your thread...care to have a go on ours?"

In spite of the jokes about slipping Nigeebaby onto the Christian team, I thought this was supposed to be a neutral thread, not 'one of yours.'

@ Thucy, you've done a good job of moderating so far. I'll be happy to judge. So to confirm-- judges will comment on the quality of the argument (the points, logic, and support) and maybe the style--how well the argument is presented? Let's limit the judges to a certain number of words too or we might end up with the judges debating ad nauseam. lol

@Mujus:

Well, I mean "one of ours" in the sense I started the thread and it's outside your own thread, that a lot of the people involved in this somehow have, at some point in time or another, have been vocal regularly in our religious, political, and other such debates and threads.

I took part on a thread you started--we need one more Christian...

As one of the more noticeable Christian thinkers on the site right now, with your ongoing Bible Reading thread, care to round out the Christian end of the demographic here?

I'm sure we'd all be happy and eager to have you...

Better be careful you do not upset God, you scallywags.

I was driving up to Adelaide, about a 60 mile drive, to see my elderly mother and
do some housecleaning etc. & have dinner with her, the visit'd friends then home about 11 pm

There was a young chap hitch hiking and my first thought was, no tits, no ride and my car is full of bibs and bobs and set up for a solo driver----me & no passengers & I kept driving, but it was a bit rainy & I remeber'd when I had been an eager young fellow & had hitch hiked across Australia, so I went back & gave him a ride, like a proper christian.

Well he noticed the copy of the "Bible of the Latter Day Saints", the Mormon Holy Book
amongst the paraphernalia in the car & announced that he was a Christian.

We had interesting chat, i explained the way I reconcile my firm support for the age of our Universe being about 14 billion years, and Earth being about 3.5 Billion years old,
and the "science based" theories of Evolution etc with the Christian Biblical Creation
"epic" or "myth" "explanation" or whatever word you like.

I'll just observe, if i am allowed your robust debate.

& I am not a Mormon, i pick'd up a copy of their Holy Book for 50 cents at a christian charity shop

These Mormon chappies would appear to have a penchant for the "fantastical tale"
& there's a chappie with a steel weapon several thousand years before steel is known to have been around and about.

Still, in we should all be allowed to worsip whatever God we choose provided it's noy used to promote violence or hatred, which is tough on the Satanists, but serves them right for backing such an evil deity.

I have lately been reccomending good old "Hymen", Roman and Greek God of Marriage to my married friends as a possible deity for their prayers.

I slipped my mate a 100mg Viagra about 8 pm in Adelaide
so his wife will be enjoying herself tonight
( just in case old Hymen was busy elsewhere )

I think Christians should nominate Christians and atheists should nominate atheists, and then they should all agree on the neutral, which was the system earlier agreed upon.

But I'm open to being convinced otherwise.

As to PE's earlier post, my understanding was that there was no "first post," but that both would write openings simultaneously? Naturally, the person arguing the negative would therefore open by arguing for the negation of the resolution.

A formulation I would welcome for our discussion would be "Resolved: Belief in a Christian God is compatible with reason." I prefer this to the vaguer "Resolved: Belief in a Christian God is rational," but if PE prefers the latter, I will do it.

Haha Maj Mitchell you are so weird I love it.

And it's up to your team to decide which three names to put forward. You can use whatever criteria you wish, so long as you reach a consensus.