* Schermer Debates Atheism with a Creationist: Michael Shermer, an editor with Scientific American and the Skeptic Society, talks with Bob Enyart about God, science, and the Bible. In this famous 73-second excerpt, Shermer denied that the Bible is correct where it states that the Sun should not be worshipped because it's not a god, but rather, that the Sun is a light. Illustrating the difficulty in debating atheists because of their hesitancy to admit to even the most obvious common ground, Shermer famously replied that the Sun is a not light.
* The Writings of Moses:
Genesis 1: Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth."
Deuteronomy 4: "Take heed lest you lift your eyes to heaven and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them..."
* Schermer: The Bible is Wrong -- The Sun is NOT a light: Here's the transcript of that part of the discussion...
Enyart: "Much of the ancient world was wrong, thinking that the Sun and the moon were gods, and the Bible was right, at least in this minor point, that they're for lights."
Shermer: "No, I don't think so."
Enyart: "I'm surprised that you won't concede this, that at least on this minor point, that the cosmology of the Bible is right, that they're not gods, they're lights."
Shermer: "Yeah, but that's not a correct cosmology, it's just a different interpretation."
Enyart: "What's incorrect about saying, 'They're not gods, the Sun is a light, it's not a god.' What's incorrect about that?"
Shermer: "They're not lights!"
Enyart: "Oh, the sun is not a light?"
Shermer: "No."
CORRECTION: Thanks to atheist Brett Palmer for pointing out that we had previously incorrectly quoted Shermer as saying: "The sun is not a light." So we checked the audio and now provide the transcript above and correct the record. Shermer responded to: "Oh, the Sun is not a light?" by saying: "No."
* Antiquity's Persistent Sun Worship: The Sun (Helios, Sol, Surya, etc.) was one of the most popular deities of the anciernt world worshipped by the ancient Egyptians and various African tribal peoples as did Aboriginials, Akkadians, Arabs, Armenians [with their god Ar], Aztecs, Basques, Brazilian Bororos, Buddhists, Canaanites, Celtics, Chinese, Etruscan, Germanics, Greeks, [Paraguay's] Guaranís, Hindus, Hittites, Hopis, Incans, Indonesians, Inuits, Japanese, Latvians, Lithuanians, [Portugal's] Lusitanians, Mayans, [New Zealand's] Māoris, [Crete's] Minoans, [Colombia's] Muiscas, Navajos, Persians, Romans, Sabaeans, Scandanavians, [Eurasian] Scythians, Sioux, Slavs, Sumerians, Turks, and [Afghani] Zunbils [with their god Zun]. Many of these pagan cultures worshipped the Sun well into the Christian era. But apparently, even the Greek Anaximander, who lived in the 6th century B.C., though known as known as the founder of astronomy, even he was anciently reported to have viewed celestial bodies as deities.
* More BEL Debates: Catch more Bob Enyart Live debates, where else? Over at kgov.com/debates.