I hereby challenge Richard Dawkins for a public debate on the validity of materialism (or physicalism, whichever term he prefers) defined as comprising the following two assertions: 1) Matter exists fundamentally outside consciousness (the latter defined as subjective experience itself). 2) Consciousness arises from matter. My position is that materialism/physicalism, as defined above, is BALONEY. I assume Richards position is that it is true. I challenge him to debate this with me. Concurrently, I predict that he will ignore my challenge for the following reasons: -- There is little to gain (who am I anyway?) and a lot to lose. -- Its easier to wipe the floor with naive religious fundamentalists. -- He doesnt like a real argument grounded in substance. But maybe I will be positively surprised? Maybe there is actually some sincerity in Richards activities, as opposed to pure cynicism? We shall see. I ask for your help in spreading this challenge around as widely as possible.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:02:24 +0000