(December 29, 2009 at 9:50 pm)padraic Wrote:Quote: How many professed atheists on this forum participated in some form of organized debate program held by an educational assembly in their lives?
Professed? Why the qualification? Are you suggesting some people here are not REAL atheists? Did we have an election and vote you the person who decides?
Yes,I've been involved in formal debating,but not since my teens. I didn't really begin to learn to reason properly until I read Plato in my late 20's. I'm still learning.
I long since abandoned the notion that winning an argument is necessarily connected to truth.
Debating is a fun skill which can be learned but is little value in learning what is or is not true---and that is what polemicists such a Chris Hitchens and ,a bit further down the food chain, Pat Condell,are doing. (hint:pay attention to bald assertions and sweeping generalisations)
I don't argue in depth nor debate on forums.Forums are platforms for mental masturbation. I also get to irritate and insult a vast range of dropkicks,arseholes and mental defectives.(largely members of the lunar religious right and Libertarians)
I suggest nothing of the sort. There was no need for it, so it's been removed. I don't think I would be voted anything on this forum except possible biggest loon.
