Rational Responders vs. Way of the Master: Uncut
Zachary Moore Permalink
6 comments
In the aftermath of the RRS vs. WOTM piece on Nightline, I was tempted (like many others) to rage in anger against the edit ABC had used for their story, that cut out many of the instances which were embarrassing to Comfort and Cameron, and presented the confrontation as an even match, if somewhat shocking for the Christians.
But Chris Smith was in the RRS chat room just after the piece aired, and he mentioned that people tend to view news stories about their issues as having been presented negatively. That struck me, and I took a step back from my anger. Was it really as bad as I imagined? Was I even qualified to answer that question? I came to the conclusion that since what I really cared about was the open and friendly interaction between theists and atheists, this really couldn't be considered to be anything but a good thing, no matter who "won."
And if I felt that the editing job was so poor, the best remedy for that was to show the uncut video. Enjoy.
But Chris Smith was in the RRS chat room just after the piece aired, and he mentioned that people tend to view news stories about their issues as having been presented negatively. That struck me, and I took a step back from my anger. Was it really as bad as I imagined? Was I even qualified to answer that question? I came to the conclusion that since what I really cared about was the open and friendly interaction between theists and atheists, this really couldn't be considered to be anything but a good thing, no matter who "won."
And if I felt that the editing job was so poor, the best remedy for that was to show the uncut video. Enjoy.
EDIT: You can download an iPod-friendly version of the debate here (caution- 600 MB).
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6 Comments:
Awesome, thanks!
Hmmmm, interesting question Zach. Are we biased in our view of what is "fair" when it comes to something like this? After all, we are both atheist activists, and we have a vested interest in having atheism look like the winner all the time.
To us, perhaps, being the winner every time would seem "fair" to us but not to the average joe?
Well, at least you got the unedited clip up. Good work! :)
by the way, it appears the WOTM have removed the unedited versions of the debate and replaced them with alternate versions; ones that appear(ed) to be edited in their favor.
That's unfortunate... I hope that they didn't take down their copy of the full debate for dishonest reasons.
Happily, the full version is here to watch, and I'll see about making a more compatible version available for download shortly.
No biggie... Cameron and Comfort know damn well that they got their ass kicked, and despite the video editing by ABC, everyone who knows of the debate also knows that RRS whooped them.
I have been looking for this since I first heard of it. Many thanks for posting this. I don't know why they ended up discussing morals in a debate on God's existence.
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