RE: My brother's bible class was teaching him about "addiction"
October 9, 2014 at 11:58 pm
(This post was last modified: October 9, 2014 at 11:58 pm by SteelCurtain.)
MLA, I agree with Jenny A. He's 15, probably not going to be a lot of serious debates coming from his direction. His behavior stinks of lashing out because of shame. He's likely doing the very thing he is claiming to be a "moral" act behind closed doors, and is sticking to his guns out of shame and typical stubbornness.
As for you, one of the best tactics when debating people is to ask for sources when they make positive claims. When your brother says things like "masturbation lowers testosterone," get a source. Is he just talking out of the side of his face? Does he have any evidence for this claim? Also, give yourself time to think and use logic. Just to use his example: is he suggesting that testosterone is somehow stored in semen? Or that there is a hormonal fluctuation that coincides with ejaculation? If testosterone did actually decrease when you masturbate, in what manner would that be a negative thing? Ask questions in a debate to determine your opponent's meaning, and then tear it apart using those very questions and their answers. Above all, do not make emotional jabs or unfounded statements, it only weakens your position.
As for you, one of the best tactics when debating people is to ask for sources when they make positive claims. When your brother says things like "masturbation lowers testosterone," get a source. Is he just talking out of the side of his face? Does he have any evidence for this claim? Also, give yourself time to think and use logic. Just to use his example: is he suggesting that testosterone is somehow stored in semen? Or that there is a hormonal fluctuation that coincides with ejaculation? If testosterone did actually decrease when you masturbate, in what manner would that be a negative thing? Ask questions in a debate to determine your opponent's meaning, and then tear it apart using those very questions and their answers. Above all, do not make emotional jabs or unfounded statements, it only weakens your position.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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