Ponder This
Well-Known Member
Based on the brief amount of time I've spent on this forum and that I've spent involved in/looking at debates with others concerning matters of religion, faith, metaphysics etc away from this forum, it seems to me that these discussions make no sense since the participants involved don't enter into it with good faith ie. a willingness to be open minded and change one's mind or position if shown to be incorrect. Both believers and non believers alike, including myself, it seems, only want to demonstrate why they're correct and the other person is wrong rather than genuinely wanting to listen to the other side and change one's mind if they're shown to be wrong and so I ask what's the point in discussing and debating if everyone's just out to prove how right they are and how wrong everyone else is? Heck even on this forum, some believers' only purpose seems to be proselytizing or proving that their religion/faith is correct while tearing down any religion that disagrees with their own whereas the purpose of some non believers seems to be to prove that religion is false or God doesn't exist or is imaginary and that anyone who believes any of it is foolish... with all this, one has to wonder what's the point?
There are many reasons to debate... but getting your debate opponent to concede to your position isn't really the purpose of a good debate.
In a good debate, both sides argue strongly for their position regardless of who is 'right' and who is 'wrong' because the point of debate is to bring forth the opposing views so that they can be compared.
I can see why people here on RF might tend towards only debating positions that they personally believe strongly in... but ultimately the sign of someone good at debating is someone who can argue strongly for positions he doesn't necessarily believe to be the 'correct' position. And it wouldn't make sense for someone playing Devil's Advocate to concede his position in a debate simply because he's 'wrong'. He may believe he is wrong, but the point of the debate is to bring forth opposing arguments and let posterity decide who is 'right' and who is 'wrong'.
Or rather, not 'who' is right or wrong, but 'what position' is right or wrong.