Muslim Terrorist? Really?

Again on the news, I've seen some more terrorist crap about all terrorists being muslim, muslims are evil, islam terrorists, Libyan terrorists take control, bla bla bla. I think enough is enough, and we should just stop this insanity.

Oh dear, the absolutists are back...

Heathen!

That's my word of today, I like it now. It is a great word to throw at people who disagree with you. But now, I am going to shout at people for beleiving in moral absolutism. There is a good reason for this; I've lost interest in keeping myself unbias. But instead, I will sign my bias material with "Devex3" and specifically, rebut other people's statements. Specifically, it is one to this link: http://swordofthespirituk.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/it-seems-absolutism-is-infectious/. I don't really think I should promote others, so I will quote what they said and specifically rebut what they said.

I shall go over why cultural relativism is correct, and moral absolutism is false, and a poor moral standard to live by.

When you know you're arguing semantics

[written by chronomax who writes here]

Arguing the Negative

I am going to do a quick, short post about arguing from the negative. It's not hard, it's not easy, but if you know what you're doing, you'll do just fine. There are 4 things you need to hit upon (unless you're doing a different debating style to the norm, which isn't bad, just unorthodox, and not done by myself), and if you do any of them well enough, then you'll win the debate.

Who has the burden?

Here's something that happened again to me today; I was told that I have the burden of proof to say how UFOs aren't real. I tried to explain in the Q&A session how I did not have a burden of proof, yet the opposition kept trying to make the point. Of course, the judges picked up on this, and gave me the round. Huzzah. But these kinds of things are becoming all too common. So, I will try and explain how the burden of proof and the burden of rejoinder works.

Absence of evidence, god, and burden of proof

[written by chronomax who writes here]

Fallout London Chapter 2, a fallout fanfic - FanFiction.Net

Fallout London Chapter 2, a fallout fanfic - FanFiction.Net

My story fanfic of Fallout. I'd like everyone to go on it and comment ;)

Objective, Relative, Subjective.

I thought I'd do a segment on Objectivity, Subjectivity and relativity. It annoys me when people get confused between the three of them. This also comes up a lot when one debates morality, and therefore I am going to try and clean up the talk about these three words, before somebody makes another mistake about them.

Correlation can equal Causation

Now, I am going to talk about correlation and causation. Correlation does not mean causation is a common argument used in the face of evidence that is either incredibly flimsy, or incredibly strong. When evidence is incredibly flimsy, it criticises the conclusion. When an opponent brings up this statement (although usually not the exact line in high level debates), you have an easy statement to make. It is a quick rebuttal of "correlation does not equal causation" usually is a huge opening. I hope to help people exploit this gap.

Debating the morality of a deity, and degradation.

Debating the morality of a deity is surprisingly easy. I have decided to do a quick inert about how to disprove an argument that uses the idea that the deity is moral.

IQ (and YouTube drama)

[written by chronomax who writes here]

English Riots Part 3 -- How the riots were handled

The riots in England that happened a couple days ago now, but I am going to finish this section: How the riots were handled. This is actually going to be relevant for a few weeks after this post (unless some huge event takes place, like France has a civil war, or Spain defaults, but that is unlikely), so I will continue with this final section.

Riots in England -- Part two, the Cause.

The riots are slowing down in excessiveness, although someone tried to organise another one where I live, less and less people are wanting to do one, and although the British wheels are slow to turn, they are unstoppable once they start: the british police are now cracking down on the riots. But what is the message behind it? Well, let me tell you.

Riots in England -- Part One, the American Spin

I think that, living in England, I should write something about what is going on. About the riots that are happening, and more specifically, the causation. But, the more I hear about what is going on in my country, or more specifically, what I am told what is going on by people abroad, coming up with these ideas that it is caused by socialism and government, I feel slightly confused at what is going on in foreign news; this is a topic I am learned in, and yet these ideas seem to be coming across that it is political riots. Well, let's bridge the understanding over the Pacific.

Fallacy Series 2 - The Likely Lads

OK, so, we're on to the second of the fallacy series: The Likely Lads. If you haven't worked it out, I enjoy British comedies. Because I am British. And I like comedies.

Debate Terminology

Hello, it's your friendly neighbourhood Dictator, and I want to talk about Debating. Again. But this time, about something that is somewhat different: Terminology. The technical terms that you would have to scour the internet for? They'll all be in this one, easy to read, easy to use webpage.

Fallacy Series

I've decided that the first thing that will come up onto this forum will be extremely simple; information about fallacies. Fallacies are the bane of those who wish to debate well, because they are common, sometimes cleverly disguised, sometimes are the rare ones that you can't spot. But, right now, we're going to try and help you stop the fallacies. You may miss a few on the way, and you'll have the occasional miserable fail, like many people have, but you'll be stronger for it. You'll be able to spot them faster, stronger, quicker, we can rebui--

*ahem*. Let's begin.

A recruiting announcement to loyal readers

As this is a public use blog, dedicated to promote discussions, debates, and arguments, it needs contributors and authors. It is simple, really. A blog needs bloggers. So, this is a recruitment drive! Those who want to make a stamp on the community, and write their minds, and tell us what they think, then you have a perfect opportunity to do so. Come one, Come all!

Hello, and welcome, to the Open Debate Society!

Hello, and welcome everyone, to the open debate room wordpress blog. Feel free to comment here, about whatever you want. My name is devex3, and I will be your Lord and Master.

Seriously, though, this will be a website for all who want to debate. This is not pro-atheist, pro-christianity, or pro-anything except pro-debates. In the words of margaret thatcher:

"I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job."