Quotes about Debate

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side.

Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth.

Talking with an atheist is like trying to reason with someone who denies the existence of the sun.

How often have we turned on the television and heard the host say, "Tonight we will be talking about faith versus science. Our first guest is a former University of Oxford professor, evolutionary biologist, and bestselling author. He believes that science, not faith, holds the answers to all questions. On the other side of the aisle we have Joe Smith, who will speak for the legitimacy of faith and Christianity. Joe homeschools his kids, thinks Oprah is the Antichrist,

I owe you a small thanks, for you have made me far more sure of my own position by letting me see the case for free choice put forward with all the energy of so distinguished and powerful a mind, but with no other effect than to make things worse than before.

To Erasmus] I give you hearty praise and commendation on this further account-that you alone, in contrast with all others, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not wearied me with those extraneous issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences and such like -trifles, rather than issues... you, and you alone have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot.

Expertise was the last refuge of liberals, ever defeated by the big picture.

The debate that has been conducted in terms of "creation versus evolution" has gotten caught up with all kinds of other debates, and this has provided a singularly unhelpful backdrop to the would-be serious discussion of other parts of the Bible.

It is an interesting observation on today's religious climate that many people now get every bit as steamed up about insisting that 'all religions are just the same' as the older dogmaticians did about insisting on particular formulations and interpretations. The dogma that all dogmas are wrong, the monolithic insistence that all monolithic systems are to be rejected, has taken hold of the popular imagination at a level far beyond rational or logical discourse.

For when moral convictions are reduced to arbitrary preferences, then they can no longer be debated rationally.

But don't you see that as an inconsistency in your views?" the young man asked. Dawkins replied, "I sort of do, yes. But it is an inconsistency that we sort of have to live with, otherwise life would be intolerable.