Stormbringer's Thunder

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull." — attributed to W.C. Fields Buona sera. Yes, I know that several of my "Time Wasters" articles are similar in nature because they deal with arguments, but discussion is a part of life. Especially on the Internet. And I wanted to warn people about the methods that some miscreants use to make discussion into a miserable chore instead of a potentially exciting exchange of ideas. Taking out of context. Context is king, especially in biblical discussions. But it is easy to take things out of context when discussing politics and other potentially volatile topics. Deliberately misunderstanding. This happens a great deal when talking with obstreperous Internet atheists (and atheists pretending to be agnostics). Ray Comfort has to deal with a great deal of that codswallop ("Ray Comfort, not only a racist and a pervert but homophobic too!", "'How foolish is it to ...

Buon giorno. I like an argument as well as the next guy. No, not the kind that we have now , with put-downs, contradictions and vindictiveness. The kind I like is the "classical" argument, with presenting positions, proofs, rebuttals and the like in a structured environment. These are stimulating and have intellectual value. It is indeed unfortunate that those have to be scheduled and do not happen spontaneously. Modern arguments are a waste of time, especially in certain situations. With the boss With the police With your spouse With your children With your spouse's children And so on, and so on... The worst argument is with Satan. That's right, you heard me, Poindexter! What, you think you've never argued with the devil? Well, when you know what is right and you talk yourself out of doing what is right, that is one place. Another is when someone is trying to convince you to do something that you know is wrong when you already know what is right ...