He never bought 100 books from Hitchens.

(September 13, 2009 at 5:39 am)Retorth Wrote: debating on a forum and face-to-face.

I have this friend who converted to christianity just last year and he is quite extreme about his faith. Last night we were hanging out and he started to get all philisophical on me.

I was SO tempted to challenge his faith there and then...but the thing is, I am terrible at verbal debates.

Care to share tips on verbal debating? How should one start and respond..etc..

I'm the same way. When my sister told me she was a psychic I couldn't say anything without pissing her off. :/

Hitchens' is definitely my favorite debater, he's much better than Dawkins. I saw him debate live in Connecticut and it was brilliant.

Ughhhhh, I'm listening to the debate against the Rabbi, and I HATE the way he speaks. It's fucking annoying.

To be completely honest, whenever the Rabbi took the microphone, I'd let him speak for what...one minute...maybe two tops, to be fair to the guy, then I fast forward to Hitchens

I'm listening to him speak about Evolution and he just doesn't get it. I want to shoot myself.

"I believe in a 3 word entity called God, Hitchens believes in a 4 word entity called Time"

ARG! You mean letters you sanctimonious asshole. God is not 3 words

(September 13, 2009 at 8:32 am)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: I think Hitchens is a joy to watch when he debates, he's very entertaining. And good at what he does.

I only stopped watching him (untill recently) after I discovered he was 'pro-life'. That seemed really suprising.

EvF

I'm pro-life too... I don't like unnecessary killing. People who think that something unborn can die... seem rather silly to me

I understand pro-lifers. I used to be one. I am personally pro-life. I don't think I would ever get an abortion, but I have decided not to impose my morality on others. I don't agree with people who abort because it's inconvenient, unfortunately there is a greater problem when it is banned, such as back alley abortions and the need to abort to save the mother. For that I am pro-choice. It is undeniable that when you have conceived a child you have what will become a baby. To deny you are killing it is ridiculous.

What are you killing? Biological matter that is alive... but has not lived. I see little difference from that and eating... in fact: eating is worse... because the life you have devoured HAS lived.

Potential life. However it's silly to think that all killing is exactly the same, like you said, we kill to eat. I don't have a problem with that. I understand the arguments that abortion is not the same as killing a baby, but I still think it's killing something. Hence I've decided to adopt the political stance of pro-choice, but personally I don't think I would get an abortion.

Killing animals and plants to eat is killing every single future generation that could have come from them. Killing an animal before it is born is so different?

Do not mistake a necessary evil for good... we must usually kill to eat... but we must live understanding that we have no more of a right to live than what life we eat.

One should know that the true measure of a man... is not in how he deeply he bows to his superiors... nor in how he respects his equals. It is in how far he stoops for those beneath him... that a man is to known.

Morality lesson aside, I think that it is possible to receive nutrients without killing however... I cite dairy products as an example we have already perfected.