***** Did you change your name from Darth Vader?

***** Cause that turned my world upside down. I no longer know what to believe.

+Aviv Aviv Agreed.

Catholics love debating, same as Jews

59 Reply *kudos to Catholic Answers for leaving the comments section open.* Unfortunately the average comment from the very misinformed, angry YT atheist is typically cynical, insulting, blasphemous and profane. One wonders why they are so obsessed with the God they don't believe in.

You don't need inherence so that everybody finds it wrong.

If you are a mere animal without a soul, know that we humans who are made in God's image and likeness are to have dominion over all the animals.

And this kind of mentality is how we get mass extinction of species

@@IowaRonin that line reeks of conceit and I don't believe a word of it

In psalms it literally instructs the Israelites to "dash their little ones upon the stones." Referring to a rival tribe. God literally instructs the Israelites to torture and murder babies. Some God of yours.

Yes, Barker gets pretty emotional...

No, a dishonest theist,an atheist would never say that.

@@frankwhelan1715 Atheist would never say what?

You're another lying theist

He is all Barker and no bites 🤣🤣🤣

For if God is for you, then who can stand against you. Nothing from Gods words states that we can practice SIN-Lite. Sin is Sin. Period.

If I the husband came to my house, I would not open the door. I'd call 911.

@@HugeDaKing you could make it a bit more interesting by saying ' your getting warmer , warmer , no now colder ' .

@@starwarsisdead5731 and yet the woman who protected the three Hebrews in the Old testament lied and was declared justified. Even Pope Pius X lying to the Nazis while he protected hundreds of thousands of Jews by saying they were baptized Christians

Perhaps telling the truth will free the husband from a cheating wife and allow the cheating wife to face her reality of sin

Yep

Looks like him.

at what minute did you saw him?

El Canal de Shackra every time the camera points at the audience

Bryan Kling pardon?

Did Barker actually say that? I remember him multiple times in other talks/debates saying “I’ve never said god doesn’t exist, just that the evidence is zero so we can effectively treat him as such”. I suspect you’re misquoting or mischaracterizing him, though not necessarily intentionally. But if he actually did say that in this talk _and_ that’s what he secretly believes-the second part especially which I have reasons to highly doubt-then he is wrong. We cannot disprove god just as we cannot disprove the existence of a teapot floating somewhere in space at just the right location and time where we can’t see it. …Effectively causing us to not consider its existence as a serious existential topic for millennia 😉

@@ZhangK71 I’d have to go back and see what he says exactly. But the teapot example is different from God, because not only do we not have any good reasons to think that such a thing exists, but we also have good reasons to think that a teapot does not exist in orbit. And God has been a major existential question in philosophy for millennia, yes. And is even still.

I'm always astonished at people's complete inability to comprehend things when I read the comments. It's as if the commenter didn't actually watch the video. Oh I get it, once again, your ideology was destroyed so you have to put words in his mouth to give yourself a straw man to comfort yourself. Getting your belief system challenged is very hurtful to you.

@@blade_warrior_blue lol, nice ad hom.

You're right about that, a lot of Christians are like that.

I dunno, some are, but I've mostly been invested in God. I think it's hard to separate our selfish motivations though, and most Christians will acknowledge that there is some selfish component to their belief, but they also will acknowledge that, ideally, that selfish component should not be there. Thanks to human nature, it is.

@@drumsandcymbals8779The reason St Leonard said most people Christian and non-Christian go to hell

wrong barker was both do you know that? and not everything has to be big worded and complicated

Let’s say you’re right, the atheist completely misunderstands the theistic concept of God. Why is it so easy to do so? I’d think a god that actually exists would be harder to ignore.

Lol, it's the contrary. Dan was literally a preacher for 19 years of his life. Trent has never been an atheist.

Explaining Christianity in simple terms rather using convoluted language (for sole purposes to obfuscate and sound intelligent) is not a sign of a straw man. It's going to the point quicky, cutting the BS

I don't think you did understand anything dan said stop religious bias take a step back from it

Christianity being true depends on the Christian God being the one true God. God being the one true God depends on the truth of the claims that describe him (i.e Christianity). If you can prove that the claims describing him make no sense, you could them easily say that he himself makes no sense, proving him likely to not exist.

@@deerecoyote2040 I agree that if the debate about the Christian God being true then those arguments are probably more appropriate. My point was this debate wasn't about the Christian God being true - it was about there being A God. Dan Barker seems to have a lot of animosity against the Christian God, and Christianity, and so it seemed he wanted to turn this debate into a debate about that and not what it was actually about.

I wonder how stupid one must be not to realize that his or her faith that a mental state of delusion.Have you ever wondered why ,if there is such a god like the one you purportedly believe in,the world is such a mess,Only one completely oblivious to the world around would confess belief in some fim=gment of his deluded imagination.What a sorry state of mind.

Are you daft? The claim of "God's" existence is rooted in the Bible, so of course the source material is going to be scrutinized and it has nothing to do with ad hominem. The bottom line is that all arguments for "God" are fallacious in one way or another, whether we use philosophy, theology, charismatic appeals, science, or logic. Literally every single argument is fallacious thus dismissible.

@@davidarbogast37 Hi there! I'm not sure we watched the same debate. This debate wasn't about the Christian God being true, or that the Christian God is the one True God. It was really and simply about A God existing. Therefore, the Bible is irrelevant in this debate. Notice that the Christian didn't even try to prove the existence of the God he believes in. One can believe that a god exists and *not* believe that the Christian God,the God of the Bible, exists. I'll say again that if the debate was about proving the Christian God's existence then absolutely bring the Bible into it! But that's a different debate.

Yeah his opening statements are the worst offenders of this. I couldn't care less about your books dan, I know you want money for your anti-theistic ministry, but maybe bring some of that stuff from the books into the actual debate?

That's a fair way to debate. The god of the bible apparently is good. Showing how it's not put this god in the category of "contradictory things". Contradictions are illogical and don't exist.

No. Dan Barker merely observes that the concept that there's an omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving God (e.g., that answers prayers) is not reflected in reality and is not even logically consistent. That's why he doesn't think God is real at all. There could be a God that exists who is not all-loving; in fact, that would be more consistent with the reality we observe, but that is not consistent with the invariable characterization of the Christian God as an all-loving God (who is described as the epitome of "good"). It is also misleading (or nonsensical) to say that Barker "doesn't like God". Barker doesn't like or dislike the Christian God, in the same way that Barker doesn't like or dislike Odin, Thor, Zeus, or Ra (the Egyptian Sun God). He just thinks they're all myths.

If you use reason, then why would you need faith?

@@riverofthewood I think the idea is that both are involved in a wholistic understanding of things. (Wholistic not a typo, a variant spelling but often used in the context of trying to look at the "whole" picture, at least in my humble observation/course of reading)

@@wendyleeconnelly2939 Okay. What is the value in using Faith as an epistemology? What purpose is being served that is not being served by science?

Tyler Lahr a MASTERdeBATER

Tyler Lahr I thought he sucked

Tyler Lahr Awful,.. he just went round and round to finally be destroyed by that extraordinary closing by Dan Barker.

1984serpiente i think trent destroyed barker

Rob Koch he doesn't

Xavier Velasco Actually Hitler was a Roman Catholic, he was even a creationist and darwins books were banned in Nazi Germany. But then again... many Christians would claim that Catholics arent real Christians. ;)

Xavier Velasco HITLER WAS A CATHOLIC....HE NEVER SAID HE WAS AN ATHEIST (MINE KAMPFT REFERENCES HIS BELIEF IN GOD) and THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AIDED THE NAZIS and EVEN CELEBRATED HITLER'S BIRTHDAT IN GERMANY...(go and read and see for yourself). Next....Stalin (atheist as he might well have been) did not commit atrocities in the NAME of 'atheism'. The people of many religious backgrounds (Roman Catholics certainly included) have killed in the name of god. The god of the bible ordered the Israelites to slaughter ALL the Amalekites SPECIFICALLY INCLUSIVE OF BABIES...innocent babies....and their innocent animals too. The god of the bible was so self absorbed and had such a wicked pathological streak that he made Abraham attempt to take his own son's life just to show his submission to his will (does that sound like a loving leader of any sort to you or a psychopath)? The god of the Bible killed all the first born of Egypt (including children) just to make a point that he was powerful (is it ever ok to kill innocent children, especially just to make a point?). The god of the bible cared more about men being circumcised, than to insist that we shouldn't enslave one another. In fact, the god of the Bible permitted the Israelites to bequeath slaves from one generation to the next and allowed people to beat their slaves to within a hair of their lives.....even if the slave dies three days after the beating...without having to even do penance. The New Testament tells slaves to be obedient to their masters, and tells masters to treat their slaves well (there by condoning slavery). What kind of all loving all powerful 'god' do you believe in? One of the Gospels states that all of the graves in Jerusalem were opened and the dead came back to life and walked about, and that there were hours of darkness in the middle of the day and a huge earthquake at the moment of Jesus' death...YET NOT ONE MENTION OF ANY OF THESE EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS RECORDED BY ANY OF THE ROMAN AUTHORITIES OR THE JEWISH LEADERS OF THE TIME....seriously....you think that they would not have written about that if it really happened. You are Catholic...so I would hope that you don't take the Noah Story or the Genesis story as literal....but in case you do....seriously....science shows that none of that could have occurred in the way described. A perfect god would have made sure that his 'word' was perfectly clear for all the ages...yet even in the times of 'Jesus' (if he was even a real historical figure) and then later during the early Christian period...there was lack of agreement on the interpretation of many scriptures....so what kind of perfect god would allow his word to come to us in such an imperfect way? (Oh by the way...I used to be a bit of a poster boy for 'the good catholic boy'...really).

Xavier Velasco No one can disprove 'god' in the general sort of deistic sense....but we sure can demonstrate the silly notion that is the god described by the big monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All loving, all powerful and all knowing simply does not fit the pattern of basic apathy 'demonstrated' by the universe.

stevytube Hitler was not a Catholic. He was baptized a Catholic as a child but later rejected the faith. Calling Hitler a Catholic would be no different than calling you, a lapsed Catholic, a faithful Catholic. Both you and Hitler have rejected the faith, thereby making you not Catholic. Also, Mine Kampft has references to the Lord. This was simply a political ploy. If you have actually read Mine Kampft, you would likely know what Hitler advocated using propaganda that bears no relation to the truth but is designed to sway the masses. Hitler was playing on the religious sensibilities of the German citizens who were either Catholic or Lutheran, of which the majority of his willing followers were Lutheran. So to call him Catholic is quite simply false. To call him religious is also false, as he hated religion with a passion. Perhaps he was spiritual, but even that is a stretch. As I said earlier, he used religious symbolism to get the masses riled up and to support him. One should really take anything Hitler said, who was a sociopathic maniac, with a grain of salt. Hitler also was a proponent of social Darwinism and atheistic philosophy. And yes, Stalin did kill in the name of atheism. Call it what you will. He hated religion and anyone who practiced religion. One does not have to be a Christian to recognize this. One just has to have an understanding of history. Also, I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in an earlier comment, but the entire reason I brought up people like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao was as a counterweight to the accusations of religious people committing atrocities in the name of God. Yes, terrible things have been done in the name of God. I am not denying that. But that is not some how evidence that God does not exist. And statistically speaking, atheist have killed far more people than religious people have. The greatest genocides, responsible for the killing of hundreds of millions have been committed at the hands of atheists. Not to mention the slaughtering of millions of unborn children in the womb on an annual basis. But yes, I do recognize that religious people have committed atrocities and I did mention that; but these atrocities, many of which are blown out of proportion, do go against Christian teachings. So just because a Christian commits a terrible act does not mean that Christianity as a religion condones said act. Also, as I said earlier, this does not help to further your cause as an atheist. Also, your understanding of how scripture was written is flawed. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. But it was written by flawed humans. The Bible was not dictated to the inspired authors. The writers were conditioned by the cultural precepts of their time. Also, a number of Old Testament stories are not literal and were not written as literal stories. And in terms of the flood, there are actually a number of plausible scientific explanations. And the region in which gained influence from, Mesopotamia, experienced great floods quite often. We are arguing for the existence of God. Your problem seem to be more with Christianity than with the existence of God. Also Jesus did exist. He is the most historically attested person in the history of mankind. The Gospels themselves are historical documents. Not to mention the number of extra-biblical sources that have attested His existence such as Josephus, Pliny the Younger, etc. You do seem to be very angry with Christianity and I am sorry if you have been hurt by Christian people, but because Christians are flawed does not serve to help your cause. If you would like some Scriptural apologetics, I can direct you to some great articles and books. But, again, that is not what this whole thread is regarding. Anyway, you are in my prayers. May the peace of Jesus Christ be with you.

Xavier Velasco amen to that

Artty 1975 One does not need a god as a way to deal with cancer. One needs cancer research. Comforting delusions of a loving God are an optional psychological extra-works well with children.

I love how everyone is so quick to judge God first. Wouldn't that make them a believer? Yes God allowing things to happen is just like letting our kids go out with friends then your child falls and breaks his leg. Whose fault was that? The child's? Or the parent? People who blame God for things wrong in their lives are absolutely ridiculous. What about the Devil? Let's just say for a atheist there's no God or no devil. Then why do bad things happen?

You theists seem to be missing the point! Atheists aren't judging god or blaming god for anything! God doesn't exist, just as well blame something on unicorns! Atheists are just pointing out the obviously dumb assertion by theists that if god is all good! If god is all good why is there so much bad/evil in the world!? Why is there cancer? Why is there starvation? Why is there sickness? matix0587 brings up the devil!? Who created the devil? God is supposed to be all knowing so he knew when he created the devil that devil would be evil! If there is evil in creation its because GOD put it there! So god knows evil and there must be evil in god! How do you people not see the obvious contradiction in YOUR RELIGION! If a contractor builds a house and the house falls over because it had a bad foundation I bet you people blame the house!

Darby Why is there wrath, envy, jealousy and ill toward your fellowman? Where did that come from? If an all good god created everything where did all this evil come from?

Jacob Lee God being “all-good” is not something that “theists” just make up, especially when you consider what it actually means to be “all good”. God’s “goodness” exists as a logical consequence of Him being the unmoved mover or unchanged changer. To be “all good” is to be “maximally good” i.e. to fulfill your own maximal potential. Thus, a being’s “goodness” in the classical sense is not some sort of value judgement, but a question of whether or not this being is maximally itself, which an unchanged changer must be. Thus, to look at suffering and make a value judgement on this being is really non-sensical.

I suppose the mind is just a concept, too, because it doesn't consist of matter and occupy space.

Perhaps Dan and Trent should of spent some time defining their meanings of their words. Dan should have clarified what makes a concept different from an idea or the immaterial. It sounded redundant, if you ask me. Like he wanted to make it sound more material, but it really makes no difference, because a concept is still immaterial, though it's purpose may not.

Even if it's a concept it still exist inside our head, it's still beautiful. I don't see the problem.

A concept has nothing to do with existence

Does that prove that any gods exist?

@@AsixA6 ya I didn’t get it either.

Honestly, whoever Barker learned from to become a preacher utterly failed him and countless others, and the foundation he put his faith on was never solid.

We should never stop debating, just stop insulting each other.

Why, if I may challenge you? Why was Barker’s criticism-attack, even-on the Catholic Church unwarranted? “Punching below the belt”, in a literal context, is frowned upon in men’s boxing and even illegal because you could produce undue amounts of damage to your opponent’s reproductive health and also incapacitate your opponent in a way that doesn’t display any skill or physicality, the refraining of both of which contributes to the spirit of the competition. But what the Catholic Church does is neither a game nor removed from the problems of religion (it’s about as _not_ removed as you can get, actually), so I don’t see any reason why it isn’t “fair game”. You may not happen to be a Catholic, in which case you can’t just use your own lack of Catholicism to dismiss the hundreds of millions of Catholics to profess to spiritually following the wisdom of this organization known as the Roman Catholic Church. If you are a Catholic, then you have even less room to condemn Barker’s claims because-whether you like it or not, fairly or unfairly-your protestations will only ring a little hollower due to your biased position. (Unless you have a specific, valid reason why your Church should not have been criticized the way it was? Do you have any rebuttals to those criticisms?)

Thank you. At least this makes God's permissive will understandable ~ God permits evil to exist because He created it and He permits evil to enact itself upon His creation because this is consistent with His will. I suppose this is so because God has some Master Plan in mind that can cause some good to come of it ~ a good that He defines, that is on His terms and for His purpose. We just have to understand and trust and take the leap of faith that "everything will work out and be ok in the end". All we have to do is endure, and wait ~ and be grateful for it. I am but God's plaything. Wish God would just come right out and say that.

@atheism delusion that is what the fictional book says so he is correct about the book saying that only! Reality of course dictates reality and that passage is not true but a metaphore!!! The entire buybull is a book of metaphors and nothing more!

@atheism delusion the book! It actually says that in their! Even though it's wrong it's still written and you can look it up yourself!

I'll have whatever you're smoking and I'd love to see the train-wrecks of his other performances, if this is one of his better ones. Dan Barker appeals to emotion in each and every single one of his "arguments" which aren't even arguments, but rather rhetorical questions or rhetorical assertions. It's ridiculous for anyone with the slightest shred of intellectual honesty and integrity to consider Dan Barker as reasonable, let alone somebody to waste their time on.

@Csongor Árpád I’ve seen you in the comments of a lot of religious debates and I wanted to say thanks for standing up for the catholic faith even if atheists are everywhere and always try to put you down

@@Isaac8_13 religion should be put down for good

He is a great debater

If this is one of his best performances I can't even begin to imagine how horrible his other performances are lmao

It'd be great if there was actually a good god (not the terrible, angry, vengeful, not so smart god of the bible)

A lot of them do. You're in an echo chamber, come over to our side, the view is much nicer.

Damn lol. this was 8 years ago. a lot has changed... including coming over to your side :) @@deerecoyote2040

Yes, but he didn't do a very good job.

@@joeturner9219 Ah, you poor deluded child.

666 fuck jesus and his whore mother Mary

Ultimately you can't disprove god.so what he attempted was to rationally dismiss god.which either flew over your head or was ineffectively absorbed by you.

Yekay yeke You are in my prayers. May the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on your soul.

Jose Colon You know you can comment without being condescending. Anyway, dismissing God is a fundamentally flawed and irrational endeavor that runs into many walls. If one approaches this debate with an honest heart and mind it becomes increasingly clear that God does exist as Trent raises a number of atheism's pitfalls. Do not approach this debate with a preconceived notion and bias, but rather with an open mind. To enter into a debate without actually being open to the possibility of changing your stance is intellectually dishonest. The strongest case that atheists can present is the problem of evil, which is itself a mystery that no one has the answer to. That being said, a question does not, using your distinction, "dismiss" the existence of God. It definitely doesn't disprove or dismiss anything logically or rationally. You know that. But it's a common atheistic tactic to infuse objections with a sense of condescension, which both you and the atheist in this video did. Condescension and personal attacks do not strengthen your arguments but only serve to weaken them.

Lets all just agree that god is a superstition and snakes don't talk. OK ? :'(

Shinigami00Azael if I decide on my own free will to grab a pitcher and pour myself a glass of water it is merely because I did not know that my cup would have water in it 😂 otherwise it’s not free will

Hello, Mr Stratton. It might be just you. And Mr Barker might actually have an animosity toward religion. But, can you point me to one of the several personal attacks?

+Ronald Mendonca Ron I was referring to his attacking the bible that seemed to stem from a very personal place. I would honestly like to speak with him and hear exactly why he left his ministry. He also had some low blows about the abuses by some priests in the church which was irrelevant to the debate

Dan Stratton Oh, ok. I see. Cuz I've seen lots of Dan's debates, and he's always been very cordial. Altho, you think bringing up abuses is a low blow, I think it was relevant. The question they were discussing was morals, and moral accountability. You're making it sound like he pulled it out of thin air for no reason.

Ronald Mendonca I believe the abuse comment was a loaded comment though. If talking strictly about morals the general term of "child abuse" would have sufficed. And simply because people do immoral things in no way proves their stance on God is right or wrong. I enjoyed the debate though.

I am not in either camp, but I think your comment is fair and it's something I've noticed in other such debates. This is leading me to the conclusion that, on the whole, believers are less emotional and more fair minded : I like them better.

You are trying to make the impossible possible what if you find out there never is a god

ella hope Jesus said that his followers would perform greater miracles than his, but instead all they do is claim that a vaccine or cancer treatment is a kind of miracle that replaces regrowing a limb or moving a mountain.

Of course I wouldn´t believe, because I can´t rule out Clarkes 3rd law or just a trick like illusionists perform, if i have no method to test that. I just don´t pretend to know what I don´t know.

Amen...atheism are 100% nonsense.

@SD4FR1J13GL C5HD1GF Jesus didn't exist? That's one of the most willfully ignorant statements ever uttered. "The world's most influential person never existed." You can't be serious.

@SD4FR1J13GL C5HD1GF The thousands of manuscripts about Him. The Roman historian Josephus briefly writes about Jesus, only to complain about how His "People of the Way" are annoying. (People of the Way was an early term for Christian, or a follower of Jesus because He referred to Himself as the Way.)

Ginarita77 We Christian's believe God is all-knowing, and has created a universe optimized for the most people to be saved. There are countless instances in the Bible where evil is used to bring out the glory of God. The burden of proof is on the atheist to show that God is not all knowing and does not know what he's doing :)

And God is so powerful he needs apologists to talk on his behalf .......🙄

jezah H He uses humans to reach other humans. When we give our lives to Him, we’re happy to reach out. It has nothing to do with His “needing” us, or his omnipotence. 🙄

@@TheBadTrad that doesn't even address what I wrote. Why does God use humans to talk on hid behalf? What's more important to know about? Gravity or god ?

jezah H You commented on God “needing” apologists as a way to attack our belief in Him and His omnipotence. I’d say my response addressed that.

me!

lmao, trent and his faith is intellectual? damn u guys r so delusional.. faith =/= intellectual

@@Bodonism exactly. Trent is still in the crayon stage.

@@Bodonism * are

Me thinks, you are devoid of intellect Sarah. Dan wiped the floor with Trent! If you thought otherwise, then you have obviousley, been brainwashed and indoctrinated. It's a shame you have wasted your entire life, believing in supernatural crap!.. Hope you get enlightenend... If Dan Barker can't persuade you no one can... Can't understand how people can believe in 'sky daddies' in the 21st century. I feel there is no hope for them😢😢

I would hope no one would be trying to intimidate anyone else. The point is to have a discussion. These two gentlemen are a perfect example of that. I think definitions ARE important. If I'm a Vegetarian, and someone keeps arguing about Vegans, then time is indeed wasted...like, if Dan said to Trent, "Ah, Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, you all are Christians, and read from the same Bible..."

Ronald Mendonca He kind of did, though, didn't he? And he assumes all Christians read the Bible the same way. Even though he clearly admits we think differently. Hmmmm...

ChesterKhan The way I got it was he was saying that NO Christians read the Bible the same way. And that's the problem. Different sects, and denominations, and fighting over interpretations are a MAJOR problem in all religions. Paul wrote "God is not the author of confusion." But, can you think of a single book that's caused more confusion than the Bible? God loves us. So, why couldn't he have made His message a little more clear?

Ronald Mendonca And yet he turns around and says that Exodus means this and Jesus teaches that, and you should hate it. The bit about some men should cut their testicles off, for example. Dunno where Jesus said _that_ - or who but an atheist or anti-Christian would interpret it that way. His statement - and yours here - assumes that the bible is the only word of God. This is an assertion with which many Christian churches would disagree. Not only the spurious Mormons, but also many Anglicans, many Lutherans, as well as the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Speaking for myself, as a Catholic, the Bible is only a subset of a larger body of divine revelation known as Sacred Tradition. In fact, if it were not for the bishops who codified the Bible, and the unwritten decisions of rabbis and kohanim when we were Jews, we would not have a unified Old or New Testament. Do you follow me?

ChesterKhan Yeah, I think I follow you, but help me out. So, what else is the word of God? How do you determine "God breathed" from not? I'm sure there would be many Christians who would call you somewhat of a heretic to say that the Bible is NOT the only word of God. You've already labeled Mormons as spurious. It's been a while for me, but I think the castration verse is Matthew like 12...something? You said "who but an atheist or anti-Christian would interpret it that way?" You forgot Ex-Christian, or someone who is a Non-Christian, like a Buddhist.

@Saint Christopher well this doesn't prevent you from at least alerting the security staff without have to come in touch with her. Indifference is not a solution, is a lack thereof

Can God catch TB?

And if the great magic donkey exists in one of those universes then He would also exist in all of the universes for limitless existence follows from his very essence. Thus the multi-verse theory does not and cannot get rid of the great magic donkey.

Sounds like youtube being youtube.

I like ur comment.

Even if it were true that a universe without a deity made life meaningless, why does that make a deity likely? Why is a universe with meaning more likely than a universe without ultimate meaning? What you should ask yourself though, is why you consider an afterlife to be something that gives THIS LIFE meaning. Wouldn't a longer, better life ultimately just invalidate this short one into being trivial? Wouldn't this being the only life we get make it MORE important? Do we not judge the value of an object based on its rarity and how precious it is? And if the afterlife is what makes life worth living, than what makes the afterlife worth living? If there is no afterafterlife, isn't the afterlife meaningless?

Futrix I'm not arguing that it makes theism true; I'm arguing that it makes it pointless to believe that atheism is true, for if atheism were true, then the truth wouldn't really matter. Also, we would have no objective moral duty to be rational, to even care what the truth is. I don't think an afterlife makes life meaningful. Sentience is meaningful in itself. Life is meaningful whether or not God exists. I said that life is *ultimately* meaningless if God does not exist, not that life is meaningless. On atheism, sentience ceases to be at death, so ultimately sentience does not exist, ergo, life is ultimately meaningless. Nothing *ultimately* matters...including atheism. Also, the purpose of this life is to choose God freely so that we can enjoy Him forever in the beatific vision. Love must be freely chosen.

Meta-character *if atheism were true, then the truth wouldn't really matter* Well atheism is simply the a word to describe those who do not buy into the concept of deities (for whatever reason). It isn't really a statement or belief structure that can be "true or false." I assume you mean to say: if there were no deities, truth wouldn't really matter. How do you get to that conclusion though? A good step in helping you question and examine your claim would be to ask why the existence of a deity would somehow make truth meaningful in a way that it wouldn't be otherwise. *we would have no objective moral duty to be rational, to even care what the truth is.* If that were true, why does the existence of a deity give us a moral duty to be rational? How does a deity make moral absolutes viable in a way that they would be impossible without said deity? And don't we care about morals and truth regardless of our perception of a deity? Isn't that evident simply in how people of different faiths, along with those who don't have a faith, still hold to concepts of morality and reality when describing the world? It would seem that this alone makes your claim silly. *On atheism, sentience ceases to be at death, so ultimately sentience does not exist, ergo, life is ultimately meaningless.* You are saying something that eventually ceases to exist is meaningless? In your view, everything that is finite is meaningless? Why does something have to be eternal to have meaning? As I've said before, I would hold that since our sentience is finite and fleeting, it is more precious and more valuable. It is something to treasure *because* it won't last forever.

Godz Drivel "Theocrats attempt to take the science out of our history books." I'm a Catholic and I'm not opposed to the teaching of evolution. It's mostly crazy Evangelical Protestants who are against it. "Theocrats would also love to usurp the rules of order and laws of our secular government." I don't know exactly what you're referring to and why it's a bad thing. Plus, on atheism, we're about to rot in the ground anyway, so none of it really matters anyway.

He is quite reasonable, although I don't agree with many of the deductions/assumptions he makes in his arguments. For example, if the universe is an isolated system, as suggested by the "2nd law of thermodynamics" argument, than it cannot be influenced by a god by definition, otherwise the the 2nd law doesn't apply to it. Its a nonsensical argument once you actually break it down and think about it, and i feel this way about every one of his arguments, even though i can understand why someone might be convinced be them, they all have some problem which makes them basically someone's best guess about the reason the universe exists, and i am simply not convinced that these guesses are correct. What could we ever hope to deduce about something immaterial spaceless and timeless, this literally defies logic, it wouldn't follow the same rules of logic that we observe in the universe if it exists outside the universe.

@Jim H Yikes...sounds like somebody is moved by Trent's words...or he wouldn't be so bothered!

Yeah, a blessing for the church, so they can rake in more unearned dollars.

Lol

That's a good point actually. God is all-powerful and all good, yes? So why do bad things continually occur when he could easily get rid of them? Seems like he is either vastly limited in his powers or he is not as moral as we think he is.

every theist argument fails. every single one

+b1bbs g0t h4nds How many theist arguments are there?

Calvin Engime dunno. how many atheist arguments are there?

Well, you're the one who knows that every theist argument fails, aren't you? So you must know what those arguments are.

b1bbs g0t h4nds Nor did I say you said that.

Oscar Dee you really had no idea of the context in which it was being used. One dimensional brain.

I meant no harm. Remember , this computer has no expression, so one can sound angry or hostile when one is not.

4 years later... Did you ever find an answer to your questions?

I think you're pretty well on the money .

FACTS!

Amy W yea he lost me with that he turned into a Protestant for a second

You didn't watch the debate at all right?

Barker wasn't defending the existence of a supreme being. He's an atheist. Not sure what debate you were watching.

The atheist is a hypocrite because he made a declaration and pretended he didn’t

@@the_abandoned_monastery7218 well put

I like how you called out Dan on the multiverse theory. It really does have less facts or evidence supporting it than the evidence for a Creator. Multiverse may be mathematically correct, but it is unprovable and philosophically inadequate to solve our creation, since, as Trent pointed out, all it means is that instead of one track with a bunch of boxcars on it, we have millions of separate tracks with separate boxcars on them, all waiting for that First Mover that Dan has never gotten around to explaining yet. It needs to actually connect with our universe for it to be pertinent towards the discussion. Many universes still doesn't solve why there ARE many universes.

and also relies on even more blind faith, a key irony that is often lost on the atheist side. It bears mentioning there are at least three kinds of faith. Reasonable (ie belief based on evidence, like how two spouses of 20 years trust one another), blind (ie belief with no evidence), and stubborn (belief in spite of the evidence). It's been my experience that atheists only ever focus on the third of those three, and insist that all religious faith is born from it.

UCantHandleTheTruth3 I have no issue with your analogy, as long as we agree that in it god is not omnipotent. Of course I don't believe it being an atheist, but that's irrelevant to the problem of suffering, which doesn't disproof the existence of god, it shows the logical impossibility of a god being all good and omnipotent at the same time. Even if one appeals to god's "nature" the question remains "does god chose its nature? Or is he bound by it?" In the first case when he takes that "bath" he could produce the benefits without suffering, which means that suffering is just his choice, or he can't achieve the result without allowing suffering, which means he's all good and just does the best he can.

A lot of what Mr. Barker said was either not an argument or a very bad argument against the existence of God. But he did come up with some good questions. And I don't know if it's just because he's an American, but I don't instantly hate it when he talks. I liked this debate.

If he won, people would not have to believe in God; they would KNOW it, as also the whole world. Since this is not the case, Trent did not win.

Just like Jordan Peterson does, by creating word salads😂

When ANY HUMAN comes out to know everything, _you_ should be sceptical to them. As humans are very limited, and they can not know _everything_. But i guess you take it on faith.

@crushedtins but unlike with god you can actually see, feel and hold money this is how we know money is real!

@@yeshuaknoyanot8474 Money is not actually real.

As a Christian I totally agree. Thank God that Jesus was not man made.

So poetic.

***** for me the bible is just another potato story book

Erdna Not I advise you to research Fr. Robert Spitzer, he's a quantum physicist who reinforced my beliefs.

There has to be an uncaused cause or else nothing else would exist. Aristotle calls it the “unmoved mover”

@@Isaac8_13 I don’t care what Aristotle said. You are trying to make sense of something that we may never know. Maybe the universe has always existed or maybe it came out of nothing. What it is not correct is to try to put a supernatural entity there that you cannot explain neither. So you are basically trying to solve a mystery with an even bigger mystery. The best thing to do is to go with what we have and currently know and be honest of what we don’t know instead of trying to come up with wishful thinking answers out of ignorance or loneliness. Science is learning more and more on this. If we run into the bearded guy at one point then great but don’t take anything as fact without proper verifiable evidence. You are just shooting yourself in your intellectual foot.

@@afvro75 even if the universe always existed, there would still have to be a unmoved mover to be able to create the Earth and the different planets. I could also say atheism is wishful thinking because you don’t want to think your actions have consequences. Also the existence of God is a philosophical question, not a scientific one, I suggest looking at arguments for both sides and go from there.

@@Andrewthememer You are assuming I haven't looked at both arguments and I've actually done that quite extensible. You say.. why if the universe has always existed that there should have been an unmoved mover? You don't know that. So how the unmoved mover came into existence? and then you'd probably say the unmoved mover has always been there and so on and we get into an infinite regress of speculation and that is not only not right but not helpful either. There's plenty particles in the quantum realm that pop in and out of existence on their own. So was that God? Obviously not, those are natural processes. Then you say that Atheist don't like to think that actions don't have consequences and so on and that's so wrong and untrue. I can't speak for all Atheist but I'll speak for myself. Actions have more consequences because the evidence shows that there's nothing else beyond this life (until proven otherwise) and since this is the only life we know of then with more reason we have to make it a good one and take care of it and cherish very much. The likes of you say, If I believe in this or that I'll be rewarded in another magical place where there's zero evidence for. Again, it's best to believe something where there's real and good evidence for it. Having faith it's a good way to be wrong and unfortunately the delusion gets promulgated. .

@@afvro75 even if the particles popping into existence is a “natural process” that doesn’t mean God didn’t create the particles because he could’ve created the process. When i said atheists don’t like to think their actions have consequences, it was a response to you saying that God is just wishful think, because the atheistic view also has the benefit of not having to worry about your actions. Also, do you believe that morality is objective or subjective?

We homo sapiens have evolved as a social species. This is why we have empathy [morality] hard wired into our DNA. This is also demonstrable in many other socially evolved species. Evolution selects for the survival of the fittest and groups that work together and care for others in the group are more successful at surviving and passing on their DNA to their offspring. Hope that helps.

@@johnhammond6423 If I choose to not be moral because I see empathy’s development as a mere feature of developing the human race, which in turn I see no point to, then should I act immorally? There is no ultimate point to morality if I can. This is especially true if I am in an environment where I can get away with acting immorally and I like doing it. There ultimately is no reason to be moral, or even to follow reason, outside of the fact that I may like to. If I lived and died immoral and/or unreasonable but happy, who cares.

@@jonnyturtleneck7153 _'There ultimately is no reason to be moral'_ You are a moral species [homo sapiens] Unless your a psychopath you can't not be moral.

no, Trent lost, Dan Barker won

Trent won the debate by a great shot!

AgapeLove LOL that's sarcasm right!? This wasn't even close, Dan clearly won this debate!

So Trent didn't show evidence so there for won ?

Your statement is as delusional as you are.

@Jim H Dan just keeps falling back to sentimental rhetoric when he doesn't have a strong argument or answer to refute Trents arguments, typical escape technique. Trent never did that. Maybe you need to watch again.

@Jim H Ah ok, you are just reflecting arguments now. So cheese, bye.