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Modern-Day Debate
Apologetics

Modern-Day Debate

Moderated debates on theology, philosophy, and religion

DebatesApologetics
Visit Channel on YouTube
5
Videos analyzed
27
Verse references
10
Books covered
74% / 26%
OT / NT split

About the Channel

Modern-Day Debate is a debate-production channel that stages long-form moderated conversations between Christian apologists and atheist or skeptical interlocutors. The channel does not itself represent a theological position; it functions as a neutral host for adversarial dialogue. Its most prominent recurring participants are apologist Cliffe Knechtle and his son Stuart Knechtle on the Christian side, and atheist debater Matt Dillahunty on the skeptical side. A number of debates also include additional guests such as Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

With only five videos at the time of indexing, the channel is small but the individual videos are long, often running two to three hours. The debates cover topics including the truth of Christianity, the existence of God, and the morality of biblical slavery. The slavery debate in particular is notable for its extensive engagement with Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, drawing out the range of interpretive strategies used by both defenders and critics of the biblical text.

Format and Audience

The production style favours a podcast or live-stream format with an audience present, and viewer questions are sometimes incorporated. The exchanges are substantive and at times heated, as the channel titles suggest. Viewers looking for irenic dialogue will not find it here; the debates are genuinely adversarial. For students of apologetics or philosophy of religion, the debates provide useful exposure to the strongest objections raised against Christianity alongside responses from experienced defenders. The channel is accessible to a secular as well as a religious audience.

Most-Discussed Verses

Exodus 21:162 videos

8 1 hour, 48 minutes, 28 seconds It's really rare to get several identifiable named fallacies including argumentad populum and posttharkhawk :36 1 hour, 48 minutes, 36 seconds into one little argument like cliff just did. Pointless Poppy says, "Cliff, you said it's easy for God to raise people :43 1

I mean, not a political war hero. They never would have believed in this. 8 minutes, 35 seconds Never. Definitely never would have gone to their death for it. Then Jesus made these claims where they were tremendously highlevel claims about 8 minutes, 43 seconds being God himself, majestic claims, bu

ty. They are your money. You can pass them on to your :35 1 hour, 48 minutes, 35 seconds children as heritage. Let's not pretend that this was a freaking social service, :40 1 hour, 48 minutes, 40 seconds okay? This was owning people as property that you can pass on to your children. :45 1 hour, 48

r, 38 minutes, 23 seconds human form and uniquely God in human form and we will kill you for it." And those followers of Christ went to the lions in the glad and the gladiators in :32 1 hour, 38 minutes, 32 seconds the Roman coliseum and they paid for their belief in Christ as being God with their l

knew to be immoral that that are in fact immoral because :11 1 hour, 5 minutes, 11 seconds God could just why why isn't there an 11th commandment that says thou shalt not own another human being his property and instead the Bible says the exact :20 1 hour, 5 minutes, 20 seconds opposite. Now weren't

happen like in :15 2 hours, 33 minutes, 15 seconds Christian fiction, but humanity wins and defeats both Jesus and the Antichrist, :20 2 hours, 33 minutes, 20 seconds what do Can I just say as an atheist that's the stupidest question I've ever heard?" And I don't think that Steuart and Cliff should

connection between a sports player being traded um :04 1 hour, 16 minutes, 4 seconds or being purchased, you know, their contract being purchased. The problem with that and trying to connect that to :11 1 hour, 16 minutes, 11 seconds uh Leviticus 25 or to any type of ancient neareastern slavery is t

ed about all of that before we actually just Let's go with it, man. I'm I'm happy to, but I'm 55 minutes, 41 seconds talking about the position where someone is owned as property. So, for example, 55 minutes, 45 seconds if if um among the people that you potentially could war with, do you think we s

you seem to see a reason to go to the Bible and I'm wondering what that reason is. 26 minutes, 52 seconds So okay, good question because for me I've read parts of the Gita, parts of the Quran, but have definitely not given 27 minutes a thorough, you know, cover to cover like my brother, for example,

that's not what I said. :36 1 hour, 12 minutes, 36 seconds I don't care about America or our understanding today. I asked if you would be my slave under Exodus 21's rules. :43 1 hour, 12 minutes, 43 seconds All right. Well, let me Matt, let me let me just dissect these two real quick and then I'll I

Bible Books Covered

1. Exodus8 refs
2. Deuteronomy4 refs
3. Leviticus3 refs
4. Galatians2 refs
5. Genesis2 refs
6. John2 refs
7. 1 Timothy1 refs
8. Jeremiah1 refs
9. Luke1 refs
10. Numbers1 refs

Notable Videos

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