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Alex O’Connor’s Agnosticism and Access Journalism
Softball interviews versus truth-telling for critics of religion
Towards the end of his dialogue with the mathematician and Christian apologist John Lennox, the skeptical podcaster Alex O’Connor talks revealingly about the fine line he walks in his discussions with theists:
I think there will be people listening to this who are screaming at their screen, “Why are you not pressing this objection to John Lennox? Why are you not saying this or that?” But it’s interesting that I get it in both directions. When I have a friendly conversation with a Christian, a lot of my Christian listeners say, “This is so great. Thank you so much for platforming a voice who disagrees with you.” And my atheist listeners will sometimes say, “Yeah, you should have pressed a bit harder.” But then when I start pressing a bit harder, the Christians start saying, “Oh, I knew you were dishonest.” So it’s a hard thing to get right.
Lennox then assures O’Connor, “You’re very successful at doing it, and I think that’s represented in the fact that so many people listen to you.”
O’Connor reinforces that by saying,
I’ve pointed out that the viewership of the channel went up considerably when I adopted this policy [of preferring open discussions or…
