*provisional upon cl's acceptance of terms* UPDATE: He's in!
There's one thing I've gotta say for cl over at The Warfare is Mental...he's a thorough apologist. This statement isn't meant to be sarcastic, though there is, perhaps, some irony attached to it. cl is quite apt at exploring areas of ambiguity in the areas of semantics and epistemology, exploiting the finer shavings of nuance in those areas to build his arguments which are generally fashioned to support his theistic worldview. Those arguments are well worth being analyzed and responded to by the other side, I think. For one thing, I believe his approach mirrors the general one adopted by most of the somewhat more sophisticated branch of modern apologists.
Now, let’s be honest. cl and I haven’t exactly gotten along in the past. Each of us has his opinion as to why this is so, but I want to bypass all that, and offer an olive branch in the form of a solution that I think is both fair, reasonable, as well as conducive to a new era of dialogue between us. I’m making this offer because cl tends to address the kinds of issues--from a theistic perspective, of course--that I designed this blog to address. Here’s how it’ll work-
Whenever cl posts an article at his blog that I’m interested in speaking to, I’ll create a new post over here, provide the link to his post, then post my own commentary. The header will include some kind of marker; say, TWIM/RvA dialogue, or something to that effect. cl will have a standing invitation to email any rebuttal or remarks he cares to offer to me, which I will post as an addendum to my piece, complete and unabridged. And that, dear readers, is where the conversation will end. No other codicils or alterations will be allowed, except for perhaps embarrassing spelling errors, poor word choice or other insubstantial brain farts, which we all make from time to time...and that will be it! Since I’ll be the one making the challenge, I thought it only fair that cl be offered the last word, with absolutely no rebuttals from me whatsoever.
I think this is an elegant solution to a problem that plagues typical comment threads. The arguments just seem to go on, and on, with statements being repeated over and over again ad nauseam. You just end up with a lot of posturing, bad feelings settle in, trolls descend in a feeding frenzy, and nothing ever comes close to resolution. I’m not saying that anything will be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction in this new format, either. However, I DO feel that both parties will recognize the necessity of arguing more carefully, more completely, and I have great hopes that we’ll avoid the sort of cascading obfuscation that leaves everybody in a muddle regarding what the conversation was about in the first place.
If for some reason cl decides not to participate in this experiment- and believe me, there’ll be no rhetorical twisting of arms on my part- I’ll go ahead and try to deconstruct his arguments sans his participation. Or, if for his own reasons he decides to
rebut me from his own blog, then more power to him, and no hard feelings. I’ve decided that, for me, the route of arguing within comment threads is a dead-end, an exercise in futility that I have no interest in anymore. There’s this last-man-standing mentality in the threads that I just can’t stomach these days, and in the end, true resolution lies in the minds of the individual reader, anway, and not in whichever debater manages to wield the biggest mass of pixels.
Anyway, the next time I choose to comment on one of your posts, cl, you are welcome to post whatever response you like here, under the conditions as I’ve outlined them. I’m hoping this will reduce the acrimony, but that’s really not my main concern. I think this exercise offers each of us a chance to think and write more cogently, to stay on point, and most of all, to have some fun. As I’m writing this, I’m imagining you nailing me on this or that point I’ve missed, and smiling because my own rules will prevent me from countering or clarifying in any way. The pressure’s mostly on me, I think, and I fully expect to find myself eating some humble pie from time to time. The best thing is that the reader will truly be the judge, and that can’t be a bad thing.
Btw, no responses to this post. I’m afraid that’ll have to wait for the actual arguments, if and when you decide to play along.
0 comments:
Post a Comment