[ARCHIVED] - The attributes of the Christian God exhibit logical contradictions.

[Tiberius]

THIS THREAD IS HOME TO THE FORMAL DEBATE between Saerules and Arcanus. In various threads throughout the forums, Saerules had been observed asserting that the God of Christian theism is an impossible entity by reason of logical contradictions intrinsic to the attributes claimed of this God. Arcanus decided "it might be a worthwhile investment of [his] time and energies to engage that claim in a formal debate," so he submitted a challenge to Saerules. The challenge was accepted, and what follows is the material content of that debate.

DEBATE TOPIC:

• Resolved: "The attributes of the Christian God exhibit logical contradictions."
  

DEBATE PARTICIPANTS:

• Saerules: Affirming the debate resolution.
  

• Arcanus: Denying the debate resolution.
  

DEBATE STRUCTURE AND TIMELINE:

• Opening Statements (11 Sep 2009, 23:59 hrs. Pacific)
  

• Response to Opening Statements (18 Sep. 2009, 23:59 hrs. Pacific)
  

• Rebuttal Against Responses (25 Sep. 2009, 23:59 hrs. Pacific)
  

• Closing Statements (2 Oct. 2009, 23:59 hrs. Pacific)
  

DEBATE RULES:

• WORD COUNT: Every submission by the participants in each of the four debate rounds is limited to not more than 1,500 words.
  

• POST DURATION: The participants are given one full week to compose their submission for each of the four debate rounds, such that it will be available online by the morning of the Saturday at the end of each deadline week.
  

• EXTENSIONS: If an extension of a post deadline is required, a request will be made no later than 48 hours prior to the deadline.
  

• DEFAULTING ON THE DEBATE: Each participants agrees that going 48 hours beyond the post deadline date, without an agreed-upon extension, constitutes having defaulted on the debate.
  

• PUBLICATION OF THE DEBATE: Each participant gives their consent to the completed debate being published outside of AtheistForums.org on his or her own web site, provided that proper attribution is maintained, using the names they each go by at AtheistForums.org, and the material is not altered in its content. Any further distribution requires the consent of both debate participants.
  

NON-PARTICIPANT QUESTIONS:

Upon completion of the four debate rounds, the participants will open themselves up to questions, if there are any, from members who followed the debate. In order to curtail tedium and tangent, each member is restricted to: (i) three succinct questions, which are not more than five sentences long each; (ii) one succinct follow-up question to each of the responses given.