Nightline Debates Existence of God

ABC is launching a new series called Nightline Face-Off, but it will launch it on the company's broadband service, ABC News Now, and the Nightline section of its Website, before it airs on the Nightline broadcast.

Not easing into the format, Nightline's inaugural face-off will be between atheists and Christians over the existence of God.

On the Christian side will be former Growing Pains star turned minister Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, Cameron's co-host on religious reality show, The Way of the Master. They will square off against the creators of www.blasphemychallenge.com, a group and Website that offers to give copies of documentary "The God That Wasn't There" to the first 1,001 people who will post a video to YouTube showing them "damning themselves."

The site is the handiwork of the Rational Response Squad, an atheist support group that Nightline featured on a January broadcast, prompting Comfort and Cameron to challenge them to a verbal duel.

ABC will debut the debate May 9 at 2 p.m. online and then air it during Nightline's regular 11:35 time period.

The debate will be moderated by Nightline co-anchor Martin Bashir.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.