D'Souza in Indy

I was fortunate enough to see Dinesh D'Souza in Indy-- and to hang out with him and some other friends afterwards at a pizza joint. D'Souza was in town to promote his new book, What's So Great About Christianity (a response to the many recent books on the glories of atheism and the problems with Christianity), and to discuss his debates with Christopher Hitchens and others.

The highlights of his talk:

-His reference to those who are only taught/hold a child-like/undeveloped faith in Christ-- as "crayon Christianity".

-His comparison of the deaths caused by the Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition-- to those caused by atheism. (The SWT and the SI are probably the two biggest data points raised by opponents raise in trying to score historical points against Christianity.) It turns out that 19 people died in the SWT and about 2,000 died over 400 years of the SI. While regrettable, this pales in comparison to what D'Souza labeled "an ocean of blood and a mountain of bodies" caused by atheistic/communistic regimes in just the 20th century.

-In giving one answer, he noted that the "book of Nature and the Bible have the same author."

-He argued that ID will lose in the courts. (I would add that it is unlikely to win in the classroom either-- given who will be teaching it; see also: prayer in schools.) So, he encouraged us to work toward taking the atheistic inferences out of science books and leaving evolutionary evidences in those books. )

-He noted what he considers to be (macro)evolution's four largest gaps: the origins of life and the supposed evolution of the conscience, morality, and language.

-Finally, he made an observation I noticed a long time ago about "relativists"-- that they only seem to be relativists on the topics when they oppose you. If you push them in other areas, the same line of reasoning reveals that they're absolutists on many things, but trying to use relativism as a rhetorical device.