Introductory Conclusion: Having dealt with the Timothy McVeigh issue; I continue the essay with my conclusion because I think that it is so important that I do not want it to be missed.
Dan Barker absolutely discredits every criticism he has ever, and will ever, utter against religion, Christianity, the Bible, God, Jesus, etc. by his own relativistic situational ethics. This essay will support this rather hefty assertion.
Dan Barker begins the debate by mentioning that on his drives around the city in which the debate took place he noticed may cars, with Christian stickers on them, breaking the speed limit. Perhaps, unbeknownst to him, his introductory statement spoke volumes about his emotionally spiked cynical worldview: he sees a car with Christian stickers on it speeding past him and he instantly begins to think about how immoral and hypocritical Christians are.
Is that so? I would appear to be so because there are many possibilities that he appears to not be considering:
1. A rebellious teenager who rejected Christianity and is now an atheist could have borrowed her Christian mommy’s car.
2. An atheist may have borrowed the car of a Christian friend.
3. An atheist may have just bought a used car previously owned by a Christian (I happen to know someone who bought a used car and, for some reason and for some time, left some Freemasonry insignias that were stuck on the back of the car).
4. An atheist might have stolen the car from a Christian and was speeding off.
5. The car may be owned by a person who became a Christian 20 minutes ago and got so excited that 10 minutes ago they placed a Christian sticker on their car and simply has not had the chance to reflect on their new moral outlook yet.
All speculation aside, most likely Christians were driving those cars and speeding, I am not denying for a moment that this is the most likely case. In this regard, Tom Neven’s article How a Fish Taught Me to Drive Better may be of interest.
Yet, that is not the point, the point is that Dan Barker does not appear to logically consider these, and other, viable options but emotionally reacts on his prejudices by instantly going for the jugular. Personally, I would be embarrassed I ever found myself criticizing the driving of people who had a Darwin fish on their bumpers and I would be even more embarrassed to mention it as my very first statement in a formal debate. But what I would or would not do is not relevant here–relevant is Dan Barker’s statements regarding ethics.