Tools of Apologetics 1.18.2
Debating Techniques
An Analysis Of The Standard Techniques
Chapter - 2
The Existence Of Tricks And The Reasons
Almost till the last century most public debates were held in an atmosphere of inquiry and mutual respect. However, both these attitudes have gone at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Deceptive tricks to win the debate, by hook or by crook, have now replaced logic and honest inquiry. There are several reasons for this and an understanding of these reasons can help apologists avoid unnecessary situations.
The Difference Between Straight And Crooked Thinking: Straight thinking analyses problems carefully, logically, without bias and without subjectivity. It takes all data into consideration and objectively applies logical analysis to it. Crooked thinking, on the other hand, avoids all the principles of sound evaluation. The basic purpose is to establish what one wants to, without regard to truth and objectivity.
Almost all propaganda by consumer organizations, politicians, deviant movements and deviant writers fall into this category. Their thinking and reasoning are crooked, benefiting only themselves. On the other hand, most evaluations in science, history, or archaeology are more straightforward. They often bring out the objective truth, benefiting everyone. Yet there are a great many people who prefer crooked thinking and the reasons are given below.
The Importance Of Winning The Case: Even till the end of the nineteenth century, people’s general attitude was one of inquiry. They wanted to investigate and find the truth. People understood that they would have to tolerate diverse viewpoints on some subjects and that this was part of social life.
However, the twentieth century became a period when ideas were used to dominate the world. The most notable example are Evolutionism and Marxism. Many people have been able to control businesses, organizations, people, or even entire countries using these ideologies. Thus establishing one’s ideas became a tool for gaining control over people. Further, in this century, technological developments made Mass Media Communication very cheap and economical. Thus for the first time ideas could be used to control not just a few people, but million of them at the same time. In this milieu winning a debate became essential for obtaining prestige and power. Since many different ideas still compete with one another, it became all the more important for position and power-hungry people to win their side of the argument at all costs.
The Complexity Of Induction And Deduction: While some people found it necessary to win arguments at any cost, the subjects discussed in the twentieth century became more and more complex. For example, the idea of Evolution was only a philosophical one before Darwin’s time. However, starting from Darwin, the subject has become a mixture of philosophy, biology, palaeontology, genetics, biochemistry, probability mathematics, information theory, thermodynamics and numerous other subjects. The mutual interaction of these subjects made it all the more complex.
In such a milieu the propagandists found it very difficult to discuss these complex issues in a systematic manner. Inductive and deductive logical thinking are not easy anyway. Thus they realized that instead of a step-by-step logical analysis of the problem it would be far better to launch into a debate using twisted arguments. Further, logical thinking on complex issues is all the more difficult for the public. Thus the public also began to favour rhetoric over reason. This added to the discovery and deployment of dishonest debating techniques for suppressing truth.
The Ability Of Some People To Argue And Win: Arguing and winning requires great skill, knowledge, insight and patience. These things do not come easily and most people are simply not fit for this kind of mental deliberation. Consequently, in any debate some people win most of the time, even if they are on the side of error. The observation that some people can always persuasively argue and win motivated many people to investigate the causes of such victories. This in turn resulted in the development of dishonest tricks to argue and win a case. The rise of dishonest lawyers, politicians, dictators, propagandists and other such biased people has also contributed to the increase in twisted thinking. So much so that many groups even publish books on how to argue and win a case.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Marxists and even Atheists have published such handbooks. Prometheus Press, the largest atheist publishing house in the world, has published The Atheist Debater’s Handbook. Their Encyclopedia Of Biblical Errancy has a very lengthy chapter on how to trap unsuspecting Christians by using these tricks. The rise of consumerism has also resulted in the sales departments of different firms teaching the tricks of persuading people against their will. Here again they use twisted arguments. Thus the overall increase in the twentieth century of techniques of arguing and winning has been great.
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