The Right Stuff - BBC

[9thdoctor]

Hitchens really dropped the ball in his lack of scientific knowledge when debating D'Souza. The latter spouted a load of nonsense which Hitchens didn't even realize was false and could be countered.

I take it you mean this debate. I think Hitchens does a great job of using his time in debates, it’s hard to critique his performance without critiquing his ideas. If the sponsors wanted an scientific debate they invited the wrong people.

[kiaer.ts]

Hitchens really dropped the ball in his lack of scientific knowledge when debating D'Souza. The latter spouted a load of nonsense which Hitchens didn't even realize was false and could be countered.

I take it you mean this debate. I think Hitchens does a great job of using his time in debates, it's hard to critique his performance without critiquing his ideas. If the sponsors wanted an scientific debate they invited the wrong people.

Well, yes, I fault Hitchens' ideas.

D'Souza's bullshit about the Hebrews' claiming that God created the universe from nothing supposedly paralleling the big bang is an example of the nonsense that a philosophically or scientifically sophisticated debater could have torn to shreds. D'Souza was full of such nonsense, from the problem of evil to the idea that one has faith in reason.

[adammcguk]

Thanks, I had seen the short 2 minute clip but I'm still looking for the full programme. If you've realised how I've spelled "programme" then you'll realise i'm a Brit and that's why it was of interest to me.

I just tried to go back over the thread. It looks like MSK's mp3 was still on the BBC website. He didn't make a copy here. And things don't stay up on commercial or news sites forever.

However, I just did a google search on "michael portillo ayn rand" and found it here: http://www.michaelportillo.co.uk/the_right_stuff.wma.

Unfortunately it's only a two minute snippet from right in the middle, not the whole thing, and you can't tell much except that he is a smooth, polished speaker and it has good production values.

MSK can correct me if the whole thing is still available here somewhere.

[9thdoctor]

Well, yes, I fault Hitchens' ideas.

His position that ethics are innate could be so easily shredded, even by a theist, but I haven’t seen anyone do a creditable job of it yet. There's a lot of these debates available on YouTube, I can't say I've gone through them all.

D'Souza's bullshit about the Hebrews' claiming that God created the universe from nothing supposedly paralleling the big bang is an example of the nonsense that a philosophically or scientifically sophisticated debater could have torn to shreds. D'Souza was full of such nonsense, from the problem of evil to the idea that one has faith in reason.

I love his one about how the germ theory of disease validates the older explanation: demonic possession. He doesn't use the word "validate" of course, but that's what it amounts to.

Thanks, I had seen the short 2 minute clip but I'm still looking for the full programme.

Welcome to OL. As a Brit you'll probably appreciate this one:

http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8020&view=findpost&p=86334

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Sorry about that folks.

I remember changing my CHMOD permissions for a lot of my sites on the server side, and I think I restricted this one by accident.

It's fixed now. Use the link for the mp3 in the opening post.

(Adammcguk, welcome to OL.)

Michael