Note: This post is currently under construction.

It is in mine and others’ best interests to promote and uphold civil discourse that is respectable, engaging, and profitable, both to the speaker and the hearer of any discussion or debate promoted here.

I don’t know about you, but I have discovered and encountered several vicious, and ill willed people in social media and on the internet that almost seem like professional hackers, spreading their agenda, and attacking anyone who disagrees with them. It is a bizarre experience to be discussing a topic, and then have all your personal data trolled, and thrown into the debate, with a fervor and with malice, clearly without conscience, or any kind of balanced integrity. Making attacks, raising suspicions, railing accusations, and such to the help them make any unconscionable point against you. If someone needs to stoop to the sewer pit to make a point, maybe that is ok for them, and that is where they are coming from, but we should in no way engage with such a person.

Proverbs 26:4-9 (KJV)
4 Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest thou also be like unto him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own conceit.
6 He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool
cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage.
7 The legs of the lame are not equal:
so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
8 As he that bindeth a stone in a sling,
so is he that giveth honour to a fool.
9 As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard,
so is a parable [an argument or a position in a debate] in the mouth of fools.

 

Therefore:.

Thus we have developed some very specific guidelines for debate:

1. No Ad hominem Attacks

   Ad hominem | adjective

   1. Attacking a person’s character or motivations rather than a position or argument.
   2. Appealing to the emotions rather than to logic or reason.
   3. In other words, no inflammatory adolescent attacks, threats, behavior, attitudes, put downs, or verbiage.
   4. If you have worth saying say it:  let it stand on its own merit, not on bitterness towards others.
2.  Own your own PrejudicesIn other words, If you are not qualified to judge a matter, admit it. For example. If you have never Read the Entire Book, or understood the Entire Story, Like the Bible or Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, admit your critique of such literature does not qualify you to make sweeping judgements that have no basis in even your own understanding.
3. Be Logical, as best you canRealize that what you think is logical may not be logical to another … based on the evidence. One piece of clear evidence can change the logic entirely.
4. Use Evidence to support your Position
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Failure to respect healthy guidelines will negate a person’s privilege to speak their opinions on this website, and will bar them from future discussions.

Each man is accountable before God for every careless word he speaks. It is not for us to judge a person’s eternal final place of judgement, but it is our responsibility to judge their current actions and behaviors and limit their damages to others in this time.

Shalom,

 

Brother Thomas