Why Richard Dawkins Will Not Debate William Lane Craig, And He in Turn Will Not Debate Me?

Challenge by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times William Lane Craig is the best known and perhaps the most effective Christian apologist. I challenge William Lane Craig to a respectful written debate here. I am almost certain that this will never happen unless my popularity or notoriety some how sky rockets,…

July 7, 2024

3–5 minutes

Challenge by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

William Lane Craig is the best known and perhaps the most effective Christian apologist.

I challenge William Lane Craig to a respectful written debate here. I am almost certain that this will never happen unless my popularity or notoriety some how sky rockets, only then such a challenge will be accepted. In the mean while I will construct a monologue here and put enough materials here to show that when Craig goes against Islam, he is clearly wrong. He believes in an eternal Creator of our universe and always offers this as the first argument in all his debates against atheists, but also believes in birth of God: Refuting William Lane Craig’s: ‘The Birth of God.’ He also believes in an eternal hell for the non-Christians: Christianity and Islam: Monopolizing Salvation versus Universalism, Who Goes to Hell and Stays There?

Richard Dawkins wants to sit on his laurels and will not debate William Lane Craig. He does invent suitable excuses but it is becoming obvious that the real reason is that he does not want to have a bad evening like President Biden and make it a Biden versus Trump debate.

Dawkins says that Craig is not good enough for him. If Craig is good enough for every other atheist, whom he has debated, including Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris then he is good enough for Dawkins. Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens along with Dawkins and Daniel Dennett have been called as four horsemen of neoatheism. So, if Harris and Hitchens debated Craig then Dawkins should as well. Perhaps he does not like what happened to the other atheists over the years.

David Bentley agrees with my assessment, in the video below, why Dawkins will not debate:

In the first video above Dawkins also has a Freudian slip. He states that he is willing to debate a Bishop, an Archbishop or a Pope but apparently no ordinary priest. In other words truth does not matter to him. It is only the social peck order that rules. He wants to debate only those that will gather him greater exposure or PR.

William Lane Craig wants the same. He wants to debate Dawkins and even though he has been critical of Islam, he will not debate a relatively unknown Muslim like me.

Nevertheless, I have indulged in a written dialogue with his good and bad ideas over the years and decades. I have applauded him when he is good and exposed him when he is short sighted or wrong. Below I present a small collection. When Prof. Craig is ready, I will engage in a respectful written debate right here in the comment section.

In the mean while, the first three videos below are to applaud Craig and those that follow are critical of him: