Collaborative Debate: The Argument from Divine Hiddenness

How to contribute

What this is:

This collaborative debate produces a Google doc that tracks all the arguments, pro and con, for whether the god of the Bible exists or not based on his lack of communication (the argument from divine hiddenness). Both sides work together to jointly produce the document that organizes and keeps track of the arguments pro and con. The Google doc is called "the debate itself" (see link to the right).

How to Contribute:

Send an email to me, gus bovona at gmail daht com. Your email

1. must specify which exact part of the debate itself (see link below) you are arguing against;

2. must actually argue against the same exact part of the debate itself that your email claims; and

3. must begin with a single, underlined sentence that accurately summarizes the point you are making.

4. would normally include (but not is not required to include) further text that would support or clarify your point.

If your email meets these requirements, I will post your email as a new blog post and add it to the debate itself. If it doesn't, I will email you back with a statement to that effect, and possibly suggestions on how to improve it so that it does meet these requirements.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

I have, for several years, participated in online blog discussions and debates between Christians and atheists but became dissatisfied with these discussions. They often floundered because the mere process and structure of posting comments to blogs did not help people keep track of the main point as well as the many sub-arguments that were necessary to carry on the debate. For instance, a common problem was that someone would make a reply to another’s point, yet the ideas in that reply had been refuted (without being countered) many comments earlier. So, the discussion went around in circles with the same points being made over and over again. Other similar problems also occurred. My solution to this problem is what might be called a collaborative debate. Opposing sides jointly create and edit a document that keeps track of all the sub-issues by outlining them.