Meatros

FYI Apostate, I think arguing with DATC is largely useless. I saw that you were discussing something with him and I just wanted to let you know that you could be sucked into a never-ending quagmire...

ApostateAbe

Thanks for the heads up.

aa5874

This is real strange.

Two guys who appear to be HJers agree to argue against each other where one admits he does not really believe in his position.

But, now, Jona has already suggested that AposateAbe's argument was "quite a strong".

Something does not look right.

ApostateAbe

I take it you suspect that JonA is a double agent or something. Well, if you think you could do better, then maybe you should sign up, start a debate, and see how well you fare.

Meatros

I encourage this suggestion.

I enjoyed their debate and learned a bit. I think that's the primary selling point of these types of debates. It's not so much about convincing everyone of your position - it's presenting your position as strong as possible (even if you don't agree with it), which helps the audience learn.

JonA

I actually think that the matter is rather unsettled. I personally lean toward the position of Jesus being an apocalypticist, but I think that the evidence is vague enough and ambiguous enough that there is plenty to be argued on either side.

This is why I felt okay with arguing against the apocalyptic position, whereas I would not feel comfortable playing devil's advocate on other matters.

Jon