{"id":15946,"date":"2013-07-20T08:09:48","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T12:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=15946"},"modified":"2013-07-20T08:09:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T12:09:48","slug":"debatable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/07\/debatable.html","title":{"rendered":"Debatable"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/07\/17\/tricks-and-truth-play-at-debate-but-avoid-the-shut-eye\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Fred Clark has a great post on magic tricks and the art of debate<\/a>, which he starts off by saying \u201c\u201cDebate\u201d is a parlor trick.\u201d Here is a sample:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/images.christianpost.com\/full\/28046\/entertainment-27351-2.jpg?w=262\" alt=\"\" width=\"157\" height=\"95\">When Ray Comfort challenges someone to a debate over the truth of Christianity, I wince because I am a Christian and I know that Comfort is most likely going to \u201close\u201d that debate, leading some to the mistaken conclusion that this indicates something meaningful about the truth or untruth of what I believe. When William Lane Craig challenges someone to a debate over the truth of Christianity, I wince\u00a0because I am a Christian and I know that Craig is most likely going to \u201cwin\u201d that debate, leading some to the mistaken conclusion that this indicates something meaningful about the truth or untruth of what I believe\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDebate\u201d can carry you only until you encounter a situation in which your tricks don\u2019t matter. Or until you encounter someone who knows better tricks than you do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/07\/17\/tricks-and-truth-play-at-debate-but-avoid-the-shut-eye\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Click through<\/a> to read the rest, including what he considers to be more important skills than those of winning debates.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fred Clark has a great post on magic tricks and the art of debate, which he starts off by saying \u201c\u201cDebate\u201d is a parlor trick.\u201d Here is a sample: When Ray Comfort challenges someone to a debate over the truth of Christianity, I wince because I am a Christian and I know that Comfort is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[2527,3592,6854,9988,13756],"class_list":["post-15946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-religion","tag-debate","tag-fred-clark","tag-magic","tag-ray-comfort","tag-william-lane-craig"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Debatable<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fred Clark has a great post on magic tricks and the art of debate, which he starts off by saying &quot;\u201cDebate\u201d is a parlor trick.&quot; Here is a sample: When Ray\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/07\/debatable.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Debatable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fred Clark has a great post on magic tricks and the art of debate, which he starts off by saying &quot;\u201cDebate\u201d is a parlor trick.&quot; Here is a sample: When Ray\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/07\/debatable.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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