The Account
Below is an introduction to a first person account of a most interesting philosophical dialogue on religion today — if you have a few minutes, you will want to read it all:
A friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous took an account of the dialogue between Plantinga and Dennett at last weekend’s APA. I know that many were interested in this, so I am copy/pasting it below. The account is opinionated (i.e., the author openly expresses his perspective on what went on throughout the account), and it is heavily sided in favor of Plantinga and against Dennett. So I welcome any disagreements about what went on in the comments section.
How important was such a meeting, and of what worth is discussion about it? Did Plantinga or Dennett take away anything new by way of argument or philosophy from the meeting? Probably not. Did anybody in the audience learn anything new by way of argument or philosophy? Maybe; perhaps some people there never heard some of Plantinga’s arguments, and they learned something new.
So I’m not sure how important the meeting was from the standpoint of philosophy. But I’m interested in reading/hearing discussion about the meeting to get a better idea of how theism and atheism are perceived by the philosophical community. I’m curious to hear how atheists might have perceived what went on at the meeting. So comments from that standpoint (and not necessarily only that standpoint) are welcome.