"Arguing on the internet= You're still retarded

[rounder421]

Because I found what I was really doing was exploring my position. What I wanted was to build my little house and put it up against the most violent attacks I could to find the defects, and if it fell, I would rebuild making it better, stronger, and then invite the storm again.

Exactly. I've been hemming and hawing at doing a counter-claim video. I've only made two so far, and I had seen a video that is beyond ridiculous that needed to be addressed so that people wouldn't fall for the bs being presented. The hold-up for me has been, am I just adding to noise level of Youtube? (Which is fairly high these days.) But it seems there is a new generation of YEC's touting their refuted claims as they were something new. Do we have a responsibility to make sure the other side is heard no matter how retarded the argument, so that no crazy claim goes unchallenged, or are we just cluttering the airwaves with more noise?

It's a question I have not answered yet, and have decided to make a video response anyway, if only to gain a comprehension of my own understanding of the subjects involved. There's nothing like writing out what you accept to be true, and then trying to refute it. It's a humbling experience.

 

[Andiferous]

Wow!

Actually, I suspect this needed to come out, because I've been begging for an opportunity to debate someone for a while and this give me a good time to plug the thread again.

That said, do you really believe that the Mormons or Jehovah's' witnesses knocking door to door as part of an initiation ritual believe everything they say when trying to sell you on their religion of choice? I think it is a clever tactic to make the new recruits memorise their arguments by facing persecution and angry dissenters in person for X amount of time. Recruitment is a bonus.

There is something to be said for mantra. And I think questioning was important for most everything of value that I've learned.

Of course, if you disagree with me, I might redirect you here again.

 

[TheFlyingBastard]

That said, do you really believe that the Mormons or Jehovah's' witnesses knocking door to door as part of an initiation ritual believe everything they say when trying to sell you on their religion of choice?

Yes. It's belief by ignorance.

(Also, not an initiation ritual for JWs.)

 

[borrofburi]

Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel helped to deconvert me. I read his book and said "why is there so much emotional manipulation here? I'm looking for rational arguments that will win on an intellectual level. It's this emotional manipulation that I was precisely hoping to escape when reading your damn book."

Ravi Zacharias

That's a name I haven't heard in a while.

 

[AyameTan]

Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel helped to deconvert me. I read his book and said "why is there so much emotional manipulation here? I'm looking for rational arguments that will win on an intellectual level. It's this emotional manipulation that I was precisely hoping to escape when reading your damn book."

Great point there. Strobel, Craig, D'Souza et al have no intellectual arguments that hold up even under a modicum of scrutiny.

Case in point: Hausam's specious arguments in this debate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xkghhMoCzU

Funny how he never really explains why his morality isn't circular or an appeal to authority.

 

[Cnidarious]

as much as i find myself guilty of it sometimes,
i agree.

it IS retarded.
esspecialy if its with apologists.
you would have more success argueing with a goldfish.