(July 9, 2013 at 9:00 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: Not giving a shit helps.
Or knowing when not to.
Some folks are willing to give and take during a discussion, or provide an interesting perspective on some old topics. Others will hold to a position no matter what, and once you understand how they approach a particular issue or question, there's little reason to debate it any further. Especially if they deal with tough questions in a dishonest or incoherent manner.
To me, the question is whether or not I can learn something new from discussing or debating with a particular person. I tend not to bother with people that I find to be a waste of time and effort, and sometimes I'll either just snipe at them or outright ridicule them. Occasionally I may have a question based on something they've said, but usually the answer reminds me why I stopped taking them seriously.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
