John F. Haught - Public Debate

Public Debate

Haught has participated in several public debates about the compatibility of science and religion, sharing the stage with Daniel Dennett at the City University of New York in 2009, Kenneth Miller at the The New York Academy of Sciences in 2011, and Jerry Coyne at the University of Kentucky in 2011. After agreeing to be taped for his debate with Coyne, Haught attempted to block release of the videos, objecting primarily to what he saw as ad hominem attacks by Coyne. Taking issue with Coyne's final list of Catholic "evils" as a way to end the presentation, Haught explained that he sought to "protect the public from such a preposterous and logic-offending … presentation." Coyne called Haught's action the "cowardly and intellectually dishonest actions of a theologian". After a strong public reaction, Haught agreed to the release of the video.

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