Is nihilism the logical extreme of atheism?

[genkaus]

Definitely. "Debate" is half way down the hall on its way to becoming "rhetoric". Of course, in any undergraduate philosophy department there will be many courses where the philosophy of the past is picked over and studied to learn the way of it. But when you're ready to actually do some philosophy, you'll be wrestling with what points are most pertinent and how they all relate. What gets published will be the schema that best organizes the issues and identifies the criteria essential to answering the question.

I don't "do philosophy" in response to points made by someone else. But as you point put here, both picking apart pre-existing arguments and making your own come under the study of philosophy.

And neither do I. I'm just arguing that debate as such is not philosophy. And though making reasoned arguments belongs in philosophy, the scope of the question is what determines whether you're engaged in fresh philosophy or merely picking over the bones of dead and settled questions.

Debate on its own - no. But when you are debating philosophical positions by making reasoned arguments....

As for the bones of dead and settled questions - which one are you talking about here?