Skeptic Tank Text Archive File

Back Page: autumn 1991

tion of their leader is a glitch in the Bible that must be explained before 
rational people can accept the inerrancy theory.   

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        THE TILL-McDONALD DEBATE 

   The  Till-McDonald Debate on the issue of Bible morality was held in 
Sullivan, Missouri, on July 29-30 and August 1-2. It was poorly attended, 
with a low of 12, besides participants and moderators, and a high of 19. 
The audience was obviously comprised of confirmed fundamentalists, who had 
come to see an agnostic take a good shellacking, for during the nightly ques-
tion-answer period following the speeches, all questions from the audience 
were addressed to Till.  None were directed to McDonald, although he had 
taken some absurdly ridiculous positions.

   As fundamentalists always do in debates on this issue, McDonald defended 
the massacres of the Midianites, Canaanites, and Amalekites as acts ordered 
by an infinite God who can do no moral wrong. In answer to a question Till 
directed to him, McDonald even said that if he had lived in biblical times, he 
would have willingly participated in these massacres by "personally killing old 
women, pregnant women, mothers, children, and infants." Apparently without 
seeing the absurd inconsistency in it, he later criticized Till for refusing to 
take a public stand against abortion.

   The position McDonald took in the debate was based entirely on an as-
sumption of the existence of objective morality, "which emanates from the 
nature of God." Till emphasized that proof of this position would require 
McDonald to prove (1) that God exists, (2) that his nature is infinitely good, 
and (3) that this infinitely good god was Yahweh, who had commanded the 
Israelites to commit the massacres under consideration. Till repeatedly chal-
lenged McDonald, who claims  that the Bible is his only guide in religious 
matters, even to cite a single scripture that says that       "morality ema-
nates from the nature of God."  He was never able to do it.

   Like all Church-of-Christ preachers, McDonald piled assumption onto 
assumption throughout the debate and considered mere assertions to constitute 
proof. Several times he flashed a chart on the screen that listed 10 elements 
in his proposition that he had "proven": (1) God does exist, (2) objective 
morality does exist, (3) the Bible is of divine origin, (4) God is good, (5) 
God is merciful, (6) God is holy, (7) God has the attribute of wrath, (8) God 
hates sin and is sinless, (9) God is love, and (10) God is omniscient.  Just 
to list the elements is enough to show the absurdity of McDonald's claim, 
because, with the possible exception of number seven, one would have to 
spend days and write volumes even to come close to presenting a reasonable 
defense of any one of the other nine and especially the first three.  His 
"proof," of course, consisted primarily of scripture quotations that said the 
very thing he was trying to prove, and to the fundamentalist mind this is 
always sufficient.

   Although we were promised audio tapes after each session, we received 
them only after the first one, and they were not of good quality. The speak-
ers were often interrupted to allow operators of recording equipment to cor-
rect problems and change tapes that ran out midway in a speech. As we 
prepare for press, we have received no word on availability or cost of tapes. 
Inquiries should be sent to Jerry McDonald, 97 Florence Street, Sullivan, MO 
63080.    


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