My new book What's So Great About Christianity has just hit the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. It's currently number 21 on the amazon bestseller list which includes fiction and nonfiction books. Especially amusing is the fact that the book is the number one seller in the categories of both "religion" and "atheism." The success of the book has the atheist websites buzzing. So I cruised richarddawkins.net, the site of the renowned author of The God Delusion. Dawkins has posted on his site videos of my Oregon State debate with Michael Shermer, and my New York debate with Christopher Hitchens.
Oh, my.
The atheists were mighty upset with what many of them perceived as my triumph in the Shermer debate. Here are a sampling of comments. "I hate to admit this, but purely in terms of who came off better, the answer in my view has to be that D'Souza did." "It's too bad Shermer...was an inferior debater." "I think D'Souza was likely perceived to be the winner of this debate." "But take heart, Men of Reason. Several atheists consoled themselves after the Shermer debate this way. "The only consolation is that D'Souza mentioned he'll be debating Christopher Hitchens soon, and I predict that Hitch will eat this odious little squirt alive and spit out the bones." "The Hitchens one is gonna be way better, I'm sure of it." "Boy, I really want to see Hitch take no prisoners. This guy needs his head handed to him." "D'Souza is taking on Hitch next? Ha, ha, RIP in advance D'Souza."
Alas for the Apostles of Evidence, it was not to be. Here is a sampling of atheist comment after my debate with Hitchens. "A little disappointing that Hitchens didn't tear him in half, instead adopting a defensive-passive approach." "It is sad that Hitchens did not nail D'Souza." "Unfortunately the trashing we expected did not occur." "I don't want to see a liar like D'Souza beat another atheist again."
After some frustrated name-calling, combined with attempts to blame the ignorance of the audience, the atheists made some revealing admissions. "D'Souza is the most challenging debater we have thus far encountered. He is extremely intelligent and in possession of superior verbal abilities. He wins many arguments because he is able to assemble a vast array of factoids that...often have the effect of overwhelming his opponents." "As much as I dislike D'Souza, he is the most able debater I have seen go up against Hitchens or any of the others on our team yet." "Hitchens...is not used to debating with someone as articulate and finely-tuned as D'Souza. D'Souza is an entirely different animal than what Hitchens is used to debating on MSNBC or Fox News. Christopher's standard boiler-plate just does not win with a guy like this."
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins portrays the atheist position as rooted in reason and the theist position as rooted in blind faith. If this is true, Dawkins should easily be able to defeat me in a debate. I have written to invite him to debate me, and I don't mind doing it in a venue sympathetic to him, not a church setting but a liberal campus such as Berkeley or UCLA. Moreover, I am willing to have an unbeliever like Michael Shermer moderate the debate. A donor has offered to pay Dawkins' and my honorarium, and so we are ready to move ahead if Dawkins is willing.
It's time to find out whose position is truly based on reason and evidence and skepticism and science. How can atheists march behind these banners and then decline the opportunity to defend their positions in open discussion in an intellectual setting? I'm waiting to hear if Dawkins is up for the challenge.
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 18)
16. A Question for the Christian Believers that have no doubt that Jesus is the one true lord, the only son of God. Who believe that their beliefs are completely true. The unshakeably Faithful. Those that believe absolutely that they are right. The Christianity is Truth with a capital T.
If many countless billions of other people of different faiths, past and present, are also absolutely sure in their minds that their God is the one true God/Gods or that their religion is the one true religion, and have as much conviction that THEY are absolutely right and correct as CHRISTIANS have, what then makes you Christians the "real" right ones and all those other billions of people wrong? Tell me that. Tell me the thing that makes you all the right ones and all the people that are just as believing in their faiths wrong. You can't say "Christ" since they'd counter with their god, whom they think is just as swell.
What have you got? Nothing. Nothing at all, but myths, and they have those too. Dead in the water. I've never gotten even a slightly satisfactory answer to this one. Most answers include in them logical fallacies that you could drive a truck through. As if the arguers were on my side.
The fact that there CAN BE no answer to this question other than that Christians are egotistically deceiving themselves, one and all, doesn't seem to stop them from trying to answer it.
I've had answers like "My religion is NOT a fantasy! It's the one, true religion! It's real, all of it, at least in my mind." At least in YOUR MIND? Please no other ridiculous self-negating statements like that, don't waste time trying to go that route.
Nope, it doesn't look good. You got nothing. Soooooo, time to change yourselves to better reflect reality. Can't bring yourself to? Time to seek professional help. Psychoses are dangerous. It really IS that simple.
You too can find the peace that passeth all understanding, as long as you lack understanding
Brian at 10:53AM on Oct 30th 2007
17. This is what we've figured out by ourselves, with our own eyes:
The Earth is at least 4.5 BILLION years old, if not as much as 6 billion.
The Universe is at least 13 billion years old, if not more. Possibly much more.
Starlight coming from the very nearest of the stars, traveling at 186,232 miles per SECOND, takes about 4 1/2 YEARS to get here from there. A long way off
The farthest stars are 13 billion light-years away. The light that we see coming from them is 13 billion years old. How did God make it, if the universe is young? In mid-space traveling to here so we'd think it were old? He thinks of everything, that deceptive, cagey God of ours. What a good liar! Of course He is, He's good at everything.
Dinosaurs died 65 million years ago. But many species became our birds. Seriously. The birds are the remnants of the dinosaurs. It's easy to see that if you really look at it.
First "people" (Ramipithecus) 10 million years ago or less. Three feet high.
First appearance of Homo Sapiens (That's us): about 130,000 years ago. Or more. A lot longer than the bible tells us.
First human civilizations, villages, towns etc.: 130,000 years ago or more
Recorded History: About the last 5000 years or so. Mere moments, when you look at how long we have been here. We've been here 26 times longer than we've written about it. WOW!!!!!!!
Christ: If He lived, about 2000 years ago.
Christianity, about the same obviously.
One Hundred and Thirty Thousand Years of people being pretty much the same as we are today, sans our technology of course. We really know about only 5000 or so of those, except for archeological digs. Only two thousand years of it under Christianity. And even today, this minute, there are over 600 living religions on this world. Multiply that by two hundred thousand years. A HECKUVA lot of religions and belief systems. All of them claimed to be the one, true religion, too. But we're the right ones. Yeah. We got it right, finally. Sure we did.
One can see how unlikely it is that the Bible is correct. By many, many different yardsticks it doesn't measure up to the easily observable facts. So, it's not literally true. Simple answer to a simple question.
My original question was, "Why did God lie to us?" By this I mean, if He put things here that point clearly to the Bible truths not being true at all, isn't that a deception? However, if the Bible isn't true, and if He was responsible for the text of the bible, He lied there. So, either way, dishonesty from God.
The only other option possible is that science is right after all, and the Bible is allegorical, which doesn't reduce it's beauty or value one whit. But many Christians will accept nothing less than complete victory in this argument. Their way or the highway. Afraid that if the Bible isn't true word-for-word, then their Faith means nothing. That, to me, is the real sin here.
Christians = children scared in a self-imposed darkness.
Science = The Light Switch
Now go forth and multiply. Oh, and divide, subtract, and add as well. Get some education, come back, and then we can have an adult conversation. Tell me why God lied.
Brian at 10:55AM on Oct 30th 2007
18. There is a GOD, and when he went back to heaven he left the HOLY SPIRIT here with us to comfort, guide and give us the understanding in Christ that we need in order to wait on him to come back and claim his church. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand this.
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No it doesn't. In fact, a rocket scientist would most likely reject this utterly and laugh. It takes a gullible moron to understand this. Unfortunately we have a lot more of thes than we do rocket scientists.
Brian at 10:59AM on Oct 30th 2007
19. Of all the religions in the world, which one is the correct one?
pragmatic pete at 11:02AM on Oct 30th 2007
20. On the contrary Brian, I find Christians to be especially difficult to argue with, because they are persistent and basically speak a different language. I say leave them in peace until they judge on your disbelief. Then let 'em 'ave it!
I would like to say that I like J Boyd's take on Atheism's purpose in the world, which would have fit well against the previous blog. Secularism is trying to make everything fair to EVERYONE. Atheism's contribution to the world is not finished. It is not to make everyone not believe, but to take an objective stance to figure out what's right for everyone, and to protect freedom of personal faith. Between some of the harsher things some atheists will be driven to say to these blogs, I hope DD will at least acknowledge this.
Mokele Mbembe at 11:04AM on Oct 30th 2007
21. 18. WOW! This is impressive! I read this blog, fully expecting nothing more than another boring shill for "the book"; and instead I found out that after many centuries, the atheists are nervously questioning their entire belief system.
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The atheists are ANGRY at DD for being a shill, and a liar, and a self-important fool that writes weekly ATTACK BLOGS pointed at US. If you see our anger at this as panic, you're as full of crap as he is. We can't be questioning our belief system, WE DON'T HAVE ONE! We are however, questioning your sanity.
It's just that this blog is such an insult to us, and you're all on board on this insult train. So get ready to be insulted, as you richly deserve to be. You want it. We'll deliver. After it's all over, you're still the dumb looking ones. No worries about that.
Jerk.
Brian at 11:09AM on Oct 30th 2007
22. Dinesh, there's this pesky thing called "Freedom of Religion" that a buncha old guys sat around and came up with. Stop ragging on atheists and stop shilling your book. These people made a personal choice and they have the balls to stick to it in spite of people like you rubbing their faces in it in order to sell a few more copies. I can't believe you get paid for this writing this inane, blatant self-promotional drivel.
Rayhan at 11:14AM on Oct 30th 2007
23. To revise the first paragraph of my previous post, by "Christians" I meant "most Christians encountered in my exciting everyday adventures", and by "let 'em 'ave it" I meant "engage in healthy competitive discourse (and don't lose)".
Mokele Mbembe at 11:14AM on Oct 30th 2007
24. I love D'Souza's toxically smug, self-satisfied aura, how he's already adjidicated himself the victor over the entire debate.
Look, D'Souza, only a decibel meter could have pronounced you a victor over Hitchens. All you was employ silly little crowd pleasing jokes and almost contemptible rhetorical pirouettes (the bit you did with Stalin, claiming Hitchens was trying to avoid it, was simply shameless and ghastly, as was the response cultivated by the credulous Christian morons in the audience).
You got the last word on EVERYTHING at a Chrisitan college with a Christian moderator. That doesn't make you the victor.
I will repeat, Christopher Hitchens beat you in that debate, audience response isn't even a factor.
azandi at 11:14AM on Oct 30th 2007
25. "Religion is the opiate of the masses" said Karl Marx and he hit the nail on the head. The Christians killing the islamic, the Islamic killing the Jewish and on and on it goes and they're all supposed to worshipping the same God. This " I have the one true God thing" is the most destructive idea on the planet. It's like the sports hero saying that God helped them win the game. It's like Bush implying that God told him to invade Iraq. This God stuff is dangerous and deadly. I thought God was for love and peace? I've seen nothing of the sort from any of these so called Godly people.
Rick at 11:31AM on Oct 30th 2007
26. Funny that D'Souza quotes none of the atheist comments on his own blog. Panic? Correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked blatant lying and disinformation were not christian values.
Michelle at 11:36AM on Oct 30th 2007
27. and by "let 'em 'ave it" I meant "engage in healthy competitive discourse (and don't lose)".
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When they can't see when you've beaten them utterly, and just keep arguing the same tired stuff, and keep on quoting the bible, and keep on condescending, what's left?
You can't really argue with a christian. It's a no-win situation. It's like arguing with a puppy. I am not trying to win an argument here, I just like to be on the record, as it were, pointing out their hypocrisy. And if they don't like that, too bad. We have to put up with drivel like this attack blog existing, so if we insult them on it, so much the better. They deserve insults since they are trying to meddle in society. They wish to drag us all back to the dark ages. The long for an "idiocracy."
Brian at 11:37AM on Oct 30th 2007
28. The Bible does not say there are no other Gods, Brian. Your argument, in and of itself, asks a greater question which I know ask you. Which God lied to us and why?
Paul at 11:40AM on Oct 30th 2007
29. l. Hillary will win if masses of women decide to
vote for a women for various female reasons, nationally. I want the real answer on Vince Foster myself, to come out before I would ever consider a Clinton as a candidate for anything. There have been many assassinations within, that would stun Americans, primarily, since the evolvement of a Facist attitude throughtout our society and various institutions of government: the Health, Science, and Certainly Military areas going back to the Civil War where black soldiers were guinea pigs for experimentation (syphilis),and Viet Nam Gases, Agent Orange experiments on our own men (When one enters the Military, he signs a paper which takes away his freedom to be his own person.He becomes the property of the U.S.Government). Somehow, Americans block it out of their consciousness and conscience,and the doers are never brought to justice in America letting The End Justify The Means)and our Government sees us as complacent wusses who ultimately through a psychologically induced fear for their own lives in this quote unquote "FREE SOCIETY" suck it up, shrug it off, and become glad it wasn't them. After all, this is why we have representatives right? Let'em take the fall? BUT, so many people I have spoken too, particularly, minorities, are afraid to excercise their right to write and express their view to those representatives. So! Are we Free? I don't think so. More like prisoners of our own minds. So many programs on TV et al reflect retaliation for standing up which I believe has caused gang ruling violence to soar based on intimidation and retaliation. So, Our children have and will continue to become conditioned to be complacent. The health industry has used us as guinea pigs as a nation at large. Drugs are put out their today because of the MONEY. The Food Drug and Cosmetic Industries are controlling out very physical existence. The Addititves (Hormones in Foods since the 1960's compounded with Hormone in Birth Control and Chemicals from other sources is astounding. We wonder why our children are so messed up. Babies being born so deformed and addictions so prevelant premature aging. Look at what you are consuming! Demand in writing Deluge the Hill with your Anger and concerns. Stop your complacency. Stand up for yourself and your childrens' future in the WRITE WAY. THE PEN STILL IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD. I RECALL OVERHEARING A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO REPRESENTATIVES ON THE STREET IN WASHINGTON DC. during the Check Scandel(which by the way so many got away with) one said to another "Ah, don't worry about it the American people don't care anyway as long as it doesn't rock their own boat-followed by less than 17% a year ever write us anyway. Here is my point about that pen as well as how you John Q. Public are perceived by the majority on the mighty HILL.
Yet, I say God Bless America and help us get back to those Founding Father principles, Amen.
Candy at 11:42AM on Oct 30th 2007
30. "5. No atheist is panicking, because they don't feel a need to force their beliefs on others, just to be free from people doing that to them"
No, they just write best-selling books about them, and teach in public schools interpretations of evidence which would create a trail of logic to short-circuit faith in the young.
slim at 12:03AM on Oct 31st 2007