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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Published results for the IQ2 debate polling

Now published on the website. These figures are (very slightly) different from the previously tweeted results from IQ2. I didn't scribble down what was actually read out at the end of the debate, but it was something very similar, and the motion was declared lost.

When the debate is televised and/or available as a video on the site, you can make up your own mind as to why the outcome was as it was and what lessons can be learned about what the theists did wrong, what the atheists did right, and what both sides could have done better. There are written versions of the speeches now available on the ABC Religion and Ethics Portal, but of course they may not exactly match what was said on the night and might not give a very good picture of the cut and thrust of the actual debate. If you read them, try the actual order of delivery on the night: Longstaff (introduction), Jensen, Pataki, Rowland, Caro, Stephens, Blackford.

In any event, the figure for people for supporting the motion that "Atheists are wrong" actually dropped by 0.5 per cent after the debate. The figure for people opposing the motion increased by 10.0 per cent:
Pre-debate pollPost-debate poll
For:28.5%28%
Undecided:15.5%6%
Against:56%66%

4 comments:

Martin S Pribble said...

Hi Russell, I haven't read all of the pieces from this debate as yet, but I have skimmed over the pieces by Pataki, Jensen and Rowland, and watched as Dave (the happy) Singer live-tweeted it. But I think your piece nailed it on the head. Thanks for this.

Svlad Cjelli said...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridgeLogic sets in.

Svlad Cjelli said...

Well, sorry about that.
Apparently there's some cut-off
at the right hand side of
comments. At least on my monitor.
That should be "FridgeLogic".

Russell Blackford said...

Some, ahem, interesting comments on the various pieces...