I’ve just watched this debate, and for the most part it was quite good.
http://www.intelligencesquared.com/iq2-video/2009/atheism-is-the-new-fundamentalism
A few things I took away from it however. Apart from Prof. Dawkins, none of the panel seemed to touch on the point of the motion in their opening comments. There was a good deal of Ad Hominem attacks from the proposing side. They also seemed to rely heavily on variations of the Straw Man and No True Scotsman arguments.
Apart from that, the panel were mostly eloquent in their arguments, the chairman slightly annoying, and the audience questions mostly irrelevant to the motion – attacking elements of Theism and Atheism.
The votes before and after went well for the Atheist point of view.





I must say that i agree with you. I think it was a good debate and that the side supporting the truth walked away with the win. The theists could resort to nothing more than attacking Richard Dawkins, and basically just repeating themselves in different wording. I can only hope that more debates like this become more exposed and (“mainstream” if you will), so that more and more people can be provided with claims backed by evidence,logic, and reasoning. Thanks for the post, i had no idea about the debate.
I too hope that such debates become more mainstream, and the victories for the truth remain just as convinving. Hopefully we are witnessing the beginning of the turning of the tides.