(June 27, 2012 at 8:17 am)apophenia Wrote: This is why religious debaters prepare the field months in advance, stacking the crowd with friendlies, busing them in often, manipulating the promotion before the debate in often unscrupulous ways, knowing what they need to succeed and ensuring the secularist agrees to all the wrong things in setting the ground rules. Skilled religious debaters make an easy meal of inexperienced secularists who are unfamiliar with 'the game'. And even knowing in advance, the general lay of the land usually ends up pitched in the religious debater's favor.
While I was already well aware that winning over the audience is done with emotional appeals and the like, I'm not familiar with what you've mentioned here. Do you have any specific instances you can mention where this has happened? I'd be interested in reading more about the bolded part.