Debate: Robert Price and Michael Green

I confirmed yesterday Dr. Bob Price as Dr. Green's debate opponent. Bob is a leading scholar on historical Christianity, as his website spells out:

• Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies, Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
• Founder and Editor, The Journal of Higher Criticism
• Fellow, The Jesus Seminar
• Executive Board Member, The Jesus Project
• Fellow, The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion
• Research Fellow, Center for Inquiry Institute

You can read his short bio here. He now teaches only a few online courses at JCTS, as his main focus is on writing about and debating the historical Jesus. One of his debate outlets includes Reggie Finley's "Infidel Guy" radio show, where he hosts his own segment, "The Bible Geek".

[If you are interested in Dr. Green's short bio, see here]

I shared this exciting development with Rev. Farmer and we're working on arranging Bob's travel expenses and still waiting to find out about the venue at this point. Bob also accepted the main format Michael proposed for the debate, adding a simple conclusion segment (3 mins) after each opening. You can read more details below in the email I wrote Rev. Farmer:

Rev. Farmer,

I just confirmed with Dr. Bob Price as the debate opponent on Aug. 24th. If you aren't familiar with him or his work, you can check out his website:
http://robertmprice.mindvendor.com/

I spoke with him by phone this morning concerning the debate format and his travel arrangements. He said he was content with Dr. Green's initial format, sans cross-examination, with a small add-on -- a simple 3 minute closing statement before opening up to the audience for questions. It would look like this:

Intro: moderator
Speaker 1: 20 min arguments
Speaker 2: 20 min arguments
Speaker 1: 3 min closing
Speaker 2: 3 min closing
Q&A: audience

Will you FW this to Dr. Green for his approval?

He said the Raleigh-Durham airport is 40mins away for him, so I checked flights out of RDU to GNV and they are not too bad -- $353 with taxes included. I attached a screen shot of this as a picture file (.jpg). I can get him a good room in Gainesville for $80 or so, and I will have someone provide him with a ride to and from the airport and hotel. I also thought throwing in a few bucks for his dinner would be honorable. I would like for at least a small group of us to go out afterwards for food and drinks, but it is a minor contingency. I am going to put in a special request with the student government to try to get the cost of his flight covered plus a small honorarium ($100 or so) for his time. I think $600 is a good figure to ask for to cover his costs.

You mentioned the possibility of helping out with the costs. If the SG doesn't approve my request, how much can you help with, do you think? Of course, all receipts will be provided and you may have a different idea for arrangements.

I will get back to you when I know more about room arrangements. In the meanwhile, we may want to have some "Plan B" arrangements, possibly with one of the many large churches in the area. I know you said you had made some inroads with those venues as well.

In addition, can you forward me a short bio for Dr. Green so that I can begin circulating advertisements as soon as possible?

I'm looking forward to it!

With warmest regards,
--
http://www.gatorfreethought.org

More to come...
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