Atheism Stack Exchange Archive

Anyone have any religious debate videos prior to 1995?

• posted by: Evan Carroll on 2010-12-14
• tagged: videos, public-debates
• score: 3

I’m interested in seeing some videos of religious debates, and debates about the existence of god, that occurred prior to the current generation of Atheist authors. Please feel free to share links to Youtube.

Answer 9

• posted by: bitcrazed on 2010-12-14
• score: 7

Richard Dawkins' 1991 Royal Institute Christmas Lecture was the first TV/video production I noticed that openly promoted Atheism.

You can watch this (still great) series of lectures via YouTube, or you can buy the DVD if you prefer.

Answer 28

• posted by: Nomæd on 2010-12-14
• score: 5

There is a debate from 1981 that I found on NatCen4ScienceEd YouTube channel, "between biologist Ken Miller and creationist Henry Morris", in 3 parts:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfqBlR8qv4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Gg9avFgWc
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPnZ9zBREAA

Update: Googling helped finding this website: 500+ Atheism vs. Theism debates.
The whole list is placed in a table with these headings:

• Atheist name
• Theist name
• Video link (if exists)
• Audio link (if exists)
• Text link (transcript or book, if exists)
• Year of the debate
• Notes (usually gives the more specific topic)

What I did is pressing CTRL+F (for Find, duh!) and typing "195" (for the 50s), "196" (for the 60s) and etc. There are 2 from the 40s, 1 from the 30s, 2 from the 60s, 1 from the 70s and several more from the 80s).

Answer 1704

• posted by: Robust on 2010-12-29
• score: 2

Madalyn Murray O’Hair (April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) was an American atheist activist, and founder of the organization American Atheists and its president from 1963 to 1986.

She was the absolute bomb … There should be a movie made about her….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8o8I8kLYSA

Answer 1705

• posted by: Scott Mitchell on 2010-12-30
• score: 2

Fr. Copleston vs. Bertrand Russell: The Famous 1948 BBC Radio Debate on the Existence of God

How about pre-1955? There was a somewhat famous debate on BBC radio in 1948 regarding the existence of God between noted philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and Jesuit Catholic priest Father Frederick C. Copleston.

• Read the debate transcript
• Listen to the original radio broadcast (MP3)

And if you've not read/heard Bertrand's talk Why I am not a Christian, it's worth reading/listening to, as well, although it's not a debate but rather a monologue.

Answer 690

• posted by: bakoyaro on 2010-12-16
• score: 0

Joe Campbell is pre-1995, not necessarily an atheist, but he does make a cogent argument for religion being the same everywhere. That it is just provincialisms and a technique for perpetuating culture and societal norms before the ability to read was widespread that separate all theist cultures. The films I’ve seen are lectures, not necessarily debates.

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