About this topic
Kalam, contingency, beginnings, finitude, fine-tuning, and arguments from the universe to a creator or necessary reality. A creator-only conclusion does not by itself establish the stronger claims of theism.
Debates are grouped by their main question. Scores assess the reasoning presented, not the truth of a position. Read the assessment method.
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Andrew Loke vs Dan Linford — Physical Reality, Causation, and Beginnings · 2023
Linford’s carefully limited skepticism outperformed Loke’s positive case by separating first changes from total beginnings and sustaining nonmetric, timeless-grounding, and material-parity alternatives.
Andrew Loke: 70 · Dan Linford: 88. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Miles K. Donahue vs Dan Linford — Fine-Tuning and Theism · 2026
Linford’s measure and model-flexibility objections outperformed Donahue’s modest fine-tuning case, whose strongest distinctions remained burdened by unsupported probability assignments.
Miles K. Donahue: 80 · Dan Linford: 87. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Michael Jones vs Joseph Schmid: Does the Contingency Argument Support God? · 2022
Schmid won by fourteen points because his focused underdetermination objections repeatedly exposed unsupported transitions in Jones’s ambitious, wide-ranging explanatory case.
Michael Jones: 73 · Joseph Schmid: 87. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
John Lennox vs Lawrence Krauss: Science, the Universe, and the God Question · 2013
Lennox argues that intelligibility, fine-tuning, and existence favor divine mind; Krauss counters with physical explanations, selection effects, and demanding evidential standards.
John Lennox: 76 · Lawrence Krauss: 84. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
William Lane Craig vs Lawrence Krauss: Is There Evidence for God? · 2012
Craig advances a cumulative theistic inference; Krauss counters that natural alternatives, evidential uncertainty, secular morality, and ordinary history prevent decisive discrimination.
William Lane Craig: 83 · Lawrence Krauss: 81. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Ben Fischer vs Matt Dillahunty: Is There Good Evidence for God? · 2020
Fischer defended axiomatic theism, causal agency, and testimony; Dillahunty pressed discriminating evidence, modal justification, consistent standards, and identifiable divine attribution.
Ben Fischer: 68 · Matt Dillahunty: 86. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Kenny Rhodes vs Matt Dillahunty: Is There Evidence for God? · 2021
Rhodes defended a metaphysical route from finite composition to classical theism; Dillahunty pressed evidential, ontological, agency, identification, and hiddenness objections.
Kenny Rhodes: 70 · Matt Dillahunty: 88. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Matthew Adelstein vs Matt Dillahunty: Should We Believe in God? · 2025
Adelstein presented a cumulative Bayesian case for theism, while Dillahunty more consistently exposed underdetermined likelihoods, divine motives, and omnimax identification.
Matthew Adelstein: 81 · Matt Dillahunty: 89. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
William Lane Craig vs Scott Clifton: The Kalam Cosmological Argument · 2021
Craig defends metaphysical causation beyond spacetime, while Clifton argues ordinary causal evidence supports narrower principles and leaves transcendent creation insufficiently warranted.
William Lane Craig: 82 · Scott Clifton: 88. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Trent Horn vs Alex O'Connor: Does God Exist? · 2020
Horn develops a cumulative classical-theist case, while O'Connor's quantum, metaethical, personal-explanation, and animal-suffering challenges expose consequential gaps in its foundations and identification.
Trent Horn: 77 · Alex O'Connor: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Alex O'Connor vs Cameron Bertuzzi: Something From Nothing? · 2018
Bertuzzi defends an external necessary foundation, while O'Connor presses modal, compositional, symmetry, and underdetermination objections against identifying that foundation as God.
Cameron Bertuzzi: 81 · Alex O'Connor: 87. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
William Lane Craig vs Alex Malpass: Did the Universe Begin to Exist? · 2020
Craig defended actual-infinity, temporal-asymmetry, and successive-addition arguments; Malpass more effectively challenged their modal warrant, tense symmetry, quantification, and paradox-based support.
William Lane Craig: 79 · Alex Malpass: 90. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Lawrence Krauss vs Stephen Meyer and Denis Lamoureux: God, Science, and the Universe · 2016
Krauss argues science needs no God; Meyer argues information and fine-tuning point to design; Lamoureux defends evolutionary creation while rejecting ID interventionism.
Lawrence Krauss: 86 · Stephen Meyer and Denis Lamoureux: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Andrew Loke vs Graham Oppy: Is the Kalam Sound? · 2020
Loke builds a first-cause route toward personal agency, while Oppy challenges its modal bridges and develops a comparatively economical necessary-natural-state alternative.
Andrew Loke: 74 · Graham Oppy: 86. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Josh Rasmussen vs Joe Schmid: The Argument from Limits · 2023
Rasmussen develops arbitrary limits into qualified perfection; Schmid’s holistic, axiological, symmetry, and necessity objections leave the God-like conclusion substantially underdetermined.
Josh Rasmussen: 84 · Joe Schmid: 90. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Josh Rasmussen vs Scott Clifton: Is the Contingency Argument Persuasive? · 2019
Rasmussen defends global explanatory inquiry and a noncontingent foundation; Clifton challenges its scope, modal bridge, and advantage over a brute contingent endpoint.
Josh Rasmussen: 79 · Scott Clifton: 87. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Miles K. Donahue vs Alex Malpass: Does Fine-Tuning Point to God? · 2026
Donahue defended a theistic likelihood advantage from fine-tuning, while Malpass pressed naturalistic aggregation, uncertain divine psychology, prior ambiguity, and theory-relative alternatives.
Miles K. Donahue: 79 · Alex Malpass: 80. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Michel-Yves Bollore vs Phil Halper: Does Science Point to God? · 2026
Scientific skepticism prevailed by exposing cosmological underdetermination, alternative fine-tuning explanations, ancient biblical cosmology, and insufficient answers to extensive animal suffering.
Michel-Yves Bollore: 69 · Phil Halper: 88. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
William Lane Craig vs Alex Malpass: Can Something Come From Nothing? · 2026
Craig defended causal necessity, finite-past paradoxes, and personal agency; Malpass more successfully exposed categorical causal gaps, coherent infinities, and underdetermined creator attributes.
William Lane Craig: 75 · Alex Malpass: 91. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Stephen Meyer vs Phil Halper: The Big Bang and Fine-Tuning · 2026
Meyer defended cosmic beginnings and fine-tuning as design evidence; Halper more successfully emphasized theorem limits, unknown probabilities, testability, and underdetermined divine intentions.
Stephen Meyer: 79 · Phil Halper: 90. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
William Lane Craig vs Sean Carroll: God and Cosmology · 2014
Craig argued that cosmic beginnings and fine-tuning favor theism; Carroll countered that self-contained models, measure sensitivity, and predictive discipline favor naturalism.
William Lane Craig: 83 · Sean Carroll: 90. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.