George vs. Miller in Edmond, OK

This debate was held between two local profs at UCO who are actually fairly good friends in real life, which makes for a fairly light-hearted and laid-back atmosphere which you almost never get from the guys on the professional debate circuit.  They also elected to remain seated, which adds to the informal look and feel of this event.

Dr. Doug Miller makes a fairly original argument for classical theism, predicated more-or-less entirely on the ministry of Jesus:

1.       If Jesus told the truth, then the Heavenly Father described by Jesus exists

2.       Jesus did tell the truth

3.       :. God exists

He goes on to claim that we can support premise #2 from the evidences of Jesus’ resurrection.

 Dr. John George outlines a few arguments against theism, including the argument from evil (alas! – in deductive form), an unusual argument about the psychological origins of hell, an argument about the futility of prayer, and a few miscellaneous remarks on the Ten Commandments.

After the opening statements, we’ve heard rather little in the way of well-supported arguments from either side, but then again, the opening statements were only ten minutes apiece.  In the rebuttal period, Dr. Miller leads with the argument from the missing body, which he dubs the “great corpus delecti” case of history.  He then goes on a bit about the dramatic transformation of Jesus’ disciples after his death.