Religion has no place in the 21st Century? Cambrige Union Society debate

[glo]

It's along debate and I have not seen everything myself.
The proposed statement for debate was "This house believes religion has no place in the 21st Century". It took place on 31/01/2013 in the Cambridge Union Society.



Proposition:
Prof. Richard Dawkins - A distinguished evolutionary biologist and ardent critic of religion, Dawkins is also Vice-President of the British Humanist Association and author of The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene.

Andrew Copson - Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association and former director of the European Humanist Federation.

Dr Arif Ahmed - Professor of Logic and Fellow of Girton College at the University of Cambridge, Dr. Ahmed previously debated a similar motion and has returned for a second time.

Opposition:
Prof. Tariq Ramadan - Known as ‘The Muslim Martin Luther’, Ramadan is a renowned writer and Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford. He is also President of the European Muslim Network.

Douglas Murray - Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society and founder of the Centre for Social Cohesion, Murray is also a commentator on issues of religion, immigration and extremism.

Rowan Williams - Outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury and now the Master of Magdalene College, Rowan Williams studied Theology at Cambridge and has written innumerable books on the subject of Christianity.

I was particularly interested to hear Douglas Murray (the last speaker), who is an atheist but ended up arguing for the value of religion in our society.

BTW, The house decided that religion does indeed still have a place in society, with 138 voting for the motion, 324 against and 85 abstentions.

[Pygoscelis]

Good link. It is interesting to see that they let a reasonable and sensible atheist speak at the end (against the motion). Usually they only let the extreme voices speak.

I found a link from this vid to another one that I found to be one of the better "does got exist" youtube debates I've come across. The catholic guy makes some of the best points I've heard and the atheist guy makes some good points as well. He's the sort of atheist I am with a similar outlook (though a bit more brash than me).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmLFBPghhvc (skip to 5:00 to get past the intro bits)