From: Hermit (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Tue Jul 16 2002 - 12:05:44 MDT
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/16/1023864379027.html
Please God, deliver us a clever atheist
By Kelly Burke, Religious Affairs Writer
June 17 2002
The sign went up after the parishioners of Broadway had digested their Sunday morning service. "Position Vacant: Intelligent Atheist to try and disprove Christianity. Apply office@ barneys.org.au."
St Barnabas, Broadway, a thriving Anglican evangelical city church, has a long and colourful history of challenging, amusing and infuriating passing traffic with its prominent billboard signs over the years.
Now the church's senior minister, the Rev Ian Powell, is in a rather embarrassing position, having invited an Atlanta-based Christian academic and polemicist, William Lane Craig, to argue in Sydney for the existence of God.
However, with just over two months to go before his arrival, Mr Powell has been unable to secure a suitable atheist for a public debate in the Town Hall on August 27.
"We want a fair, vigorous and articulate argument, without resorting to personal attack," Mr Powell said yesterday, after securing the advertisement to the church's front gate, overlooking Broadway.
The broadcaster Phillip Adams has agreed to debate Dr Lane Craig at the University of Sydney on August 26, but St Barnabas was unable to secure his services for the Town Hall engagement the next night.
"We don't want a Tyson vs Mundine fight ... if it's a choice between your standard village atheist and a rigorous agnostic we'll take the agnostic. We don't want to end up with a patsy."
But in the interest of quality discourse, the Humanist Society of NSW will help St Barnabas select a worthy candidate.
Its president, Ian Ellis-Jones, said: "The church is very good at dragging out these Christian apologists. But, of course, it is impossible to prove or disprove any belief system."
---- This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25705>
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