Subjective claims made about the experience of inner satisfaction or peace - claims that
are made in earnest by both Christians and atheists in their literature - and promotional
claims made about the superiority of Christianity or atheism.
For instance, some atheist literature suggests that greater mental health comes through
the independence of the atheist outlook. These sorts of things are always subject to
conflicting interpretations and explanations, being, I think, more autobiographical, rather
than telling us anything for sure about the truth of the system under consideration.
The issue is not whether atheists or professing Christians have ever done anything
undesirable or morally unacceptable.
One need only think respectively of the atheist involvement in the Reign of Terror in the
French Revolution, and the professing Christian involvement in the Spanish Inquisition.
The question is not whether the adherents to these systems have lived spotless lives, but
whether atheism or Christian theism as philosophical systems are objectively true. And so I'll
be defending Christian theism, and I'll be defending it as a philosophical system.
B. A Concession to Stein's Area of Expertise
My last introductory remark is something to the effect that I want to concede to my
opponent all issues pertaining to The Control of Ovarian Maturation in Japanese
Whales, the subject of his doctoral dissertation in 1974 at Ohio State.
Dr. Stein is a man of intelligence, and that's not a question in this debate. I would not
pretend to hold my own in a discussion with him in the empirical details of his narrow
domain of specialized natural science.
However, our subject tonight is really much different, calling for intelligent reflection
upon issues which are philosophical or theological in character. For some reason, Dr. Stein
has, over the last decade, left his field of expertise and given his life to a campaign for
atheism. Whatever his perception of the reason for that, I do not believe that it is because of
any genuinely cogent philosophical case which might be made for atheism as a world view.
And it is to this subject that I now turn for tonight's debate.
C. Opening Case for the Existence of God
My opening case for the existence of God will cover three areas of thought: the nature of
evidence, the presuppositional conflict of world views, and the transcendental argument for
God's existence