Gene Cook Interviewed Me in 2006

In 2006 I was interviewed by Gene Cook of the Atheist Hour, Link.

3 comments:

Jeff Boldt said...

That second to last guy was brutal, you can tell he DOESN'T like anyone questioning his faith.

DingoDave said...

Good interview John. I think that you did as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

I'd like to present a brief critique of this interview, and make a few observations about some of the nonsensical arguments that Gene and his callers put forward.

I'm still having trouble believing that I heard Gene equate the findings of modern astronomy concerning the size and age of the universe, with the erroneous belief that the Earth was flat, in order to refute the findings of modern astronomers, cosmologists and astrophysicists. WTF?
Gene claims to believe that all the billions of stars and galaxies were created only 6000 years ago, but with their light beams already almost reaching the Earth, in order to trick us into believing that the universe is 14.5 billion years old. The guy is complete nutter, and yet he has the unbridled arrogance to contradict all the thousands of scientists whose life's work has been dedicated to studying these things.
He might as well subscribe to the philosophy of 'last Tuesdayism'. ie. the idea that everything was created last Tuesday, and that all our memories have been implanted in us in order to give us the illusion of age.
This is what can happen when people relinquish their reason, and slavishly give themselves over to ancient superstitions and dogmas. It's positively scary, and I feel sorry for his children. These guys really are desperate to defend their faith at any cost.

Gene also admitted that we don't yet have all the information about how the universe operates, yet he still insisted that he is justified in jumping to the conclusion that Goddidit!
At one point Gene, a self confessed presuppositionalist suggested that John drop his own naturalistic presuppositions, and simply believe all the fanciful stories which are written in the Bible by adopting Gene's own presuppositions.
What breathtaking hypocrisy!
The guy is a walking contradiction, and I can't understand how he could not be embarrassed about saying such things.

This interview just proves the point that it is virtually impossible to hold a rational conversation with
presuppositionalists such as Gene Cook. As soon as they're pushed into a corner about any of their beliefs, they'll just make up their own facts as they go along in order to sidestep the issue at hand. They seem to be incapable of understanding how anyone could
have the humility to admit that at the moment there are some things we just don't know, and some things that we may never know.

Paul Manata accused John of being arbitrary when it comes to applying the principle of methodological naturalism. But it seems to me that it is Paul and Gene who are being arbitrary with it's use, rather than John. They seem to be quite happy to apply the principle of MN when it comes to virtually everything except examining the claims of their own religion. What a couple of bullshit artists.
I wish that Paul could have kept his trap shut for more than 2 seconds and let John answer his questions. Paul Manata appears to have gone from being just an ordinary garden variety bully, to being a 'bully for Jesus'.

As a grand finale, Gene compared the contradictory 'testimony of the holy spirit' to something like a fuzzy TV reception. Maybe he just needs to get his aerial adjusted. LOL :-D

These guys are great entertainment value, but they appear to be further off the planet than even the Andromeda Galaxy itself.

Jim Thompson said...

That was very, very hard to listen to. As the previous poster said, so many goddidit arguements.

However, I now know why when I've listen to Dr. Craig debate why his arguments make sense to him but not
me.

Of course, there was the bit of unintended humor when the caller was basically saying that John's previous church was apostate. John you would go to hell either way!