This was held on Tuesday 19th August in Sydney, I had tickets but unfortunately was unable to go. Lucky for me, and everyone else, the debate is now available online, via the SMH site.
I have been reliably informed that
The second speaker on the affirmative was censored (the audio had been removed from the video) when talking about “The Jewel of Medina” a book which criticizes Islam and subsequently pulled by the publisher. This is quite disgraceful, clearly the whole point behind what the speaker was talking about was missed by the editors too scared to upset the sensibilities of Islam.
If this is true it is very disgraceful of the Sydney Morning Herald. Screw the sensibilities of any religion, they don’t hold any special rights to be upset just because someone legitimately critiques them.
Hopefully, eventually all these debates will be either shown on TV (ABC are one of the sponsors, so we might be lucky) and or released on DVD.
Hat Tip to Aaron from the Secular Party discussion board for the link and above information.
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29 August 2008 at 3:39 pm
If this is true it is very disgraceful of the Sydney Morning Herald. Screw the sensibilities of any religion, they don’t hold any special rights to be upset just because someone legitimately critiques them.
Forelock-tugging cowards.
30 August 2008 at 7:43 am
Another Goddamned podcast devoted an entire cast to the cowards t random house. Now we have an Australian newspaper vetting free speech
12 September 2008 at 9:22 am
They’re broadcasting on ABC2 on a show called Fora:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/fora/
Yesterday evening there was a section of the debate aired (after a post-speech Q&A session with Paul Keating – Fora is showing some interesting things!) and this morning the debate was broadcast in full. Unfortunately, I found your blog when looking online for the debate results (I left the room when Dr John Lennox was speaking and ended up missing the end) and as such, am letting you know when it’s on slightly too late to be useful.
12 September 2008 at 9:28 am
Thanks, and welcome to my blog, catbiscuit, better late than never.