Dillahunty vs Sye

[Drummer Guy]

So, I heard that Matt Dillahunty is going to debate Sye Ten Bruggencate at the end of this month.  I would love to ask Matt this question, but don't really know how to contact him:  WHY?!

Sye doesn't debate, he plays semantic games and bullies people.  His refusal to engage in actual discourse eventually frustrates people, at which point he will play the card "Look at how my amazing arguments and logic have made this atheist angry" or "They kicked me off the show because they couldn't admit that I was right".

I seriously don't see any good coming from this.  Of all the people I've heard, Matt would be the best at handling the bullshit, but I still can't see any kind of productive dialogue coming out of this.

Who knows, maybe I'll be surprised.

[SGOS]

I still can't see any kind of productive dialogue coming out of this.

I think you're right.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of any productive dialogue coming out of this sort of encounter.

[ApostateLois]

Any idea when the debate is taking place?

[La Dolce Vita]

Dillahunty has stated that he never refuses a debate (within reason, such as traveling around the world for a private chat) and he lives up to his principles. (Though he has stated that he will never "debate" Ray Comfort again, as he doesn't debate). I find that incredibly admirable! Though I'm sure it causes him a lot of headaches. As long as there's an audience I do agree that what he's doing can be productive, just as when Nye faced Ham. You get their audience to a certain degree, and as long as you can plant some seeds of logical thought in a single person it's worth it. Dillahunty knows this. He knows that the two people arguing is unlikely to be swayed. He's going for the public, wanting to educate them and make them thing. Dillahunty is a great speaker, usually with really solid arguments, and plenty of people have called into AE to tell him that listening to him made them atheist. This is why he's speaking. Regardless of Sye's dishonesty, Dillahunty can still spread logic in a marvelous fashion, perhaps even more so as he can expose Sye when he's dishonest. I wholeheartedly support his efforts.

[Atheon]

Matt Dillahunty trounced Sye in my opinion. Sye started out by quote-mining Matt by playing clips of Matt out of context, then went on to play his silly games, make his unsupported assertions, refuse to back them up, and generally act like a dick. Matt handled him like a champ, repeatedly showing the audience what a dishonest shyster Sye is.

In the post-debate discussion, even Eric Hovind, who attended the debate, looked like a great guy in comparison to Sye. Sye is a complete dick.

[La Dolce Vita]

I just finished watching this. If Sye is honest, which I always doubt when people act as dishonest and absurd as this - but I do know idiocy and plain old brainwashing exists - it's just sad. This was really frustrating - but it's nice to know that sometimes christians act so absurdly dumb that essentially anyone could trounce them. Many moments when I couldn't stop laughing here. I thought Dillahunty did a good job, but he spent far too much time on the philosophical matter of knowledge - he should have simply said: Barring solipsism, and accepting the reality we experience - we know this. Took up to much of the debate.

Nice to know that I know HIS god exists, and so does every member of every other religion that worships their gods with the same passion. Also nice to know that my conscience agrees with him, when what I experienced my conscience telling me was "The god he's describing is morally repugnant" - and even more nice to know that good is so GOOD that he creates everyone so bad that they deserve eternal punishment, that he'll give you, because he's so GOOD.

Like I said, if he's honest it's just sad.