Re: A hermit exists in peace...

"I believe the Debate Forums have divided us into camps of anti(fill in the blank) instead of bringing us together. I feel very alienated from those who once called me friend. I know I did my part of creating that alienation as well so I am not letting myself off the hook."

I agree with you about how divisive the Debate Forums have made us, and how that attitude spills into other health Support Forums as well. One thing I rarely see mentioned is that very few if any rules of formal debate are ever followed. Now, I realize it would hardly be practical to make debate here like a high school debate team, but there are some rules that need to be followed. First of all is respect for the other side, no matter how strongly you feel about your position the other guy does have a right to his opinion. The second problem is based on either blatant ignorance or stereotyping. I found this especially true on the Christianity Debate forum that seems to be little more than a mixture of Christian bashing based on stereotypical fundamentalists that rarely describes the many Christian people I know; or a self righteous "holier-than-thou" attitude that does nothing to edify or exemplify Christian faith. There are exceptions, yes, but I was so disappointed not to find an avenue of intelligent discussion among different believers; but rather a free for all ugly series of arguments that were nothing but a waste of time and bandwidth. Still, if those who participate there are happy with the format, is it simply best that I stay away rather than rock the already shaky boat?

I don't know much about the other Debate Forums except that I did visit the CureZone Experts Forum to see if anyone else had the same concerns I did about a certain "expert", they did, but the tone was ugly so I left and kept my opinions to myself.

I think a lot of problems could be solved if the attack the message not the messenger rule was more strongly enforced and somehow the plethora of cut and paste messages could be eliminated. I don't mind strong disagreements with my opinions, but I do resent having these constant cut and paste articles thrown around because I am too stupid and brainwashed to care about the "truth" as some people perceive it. Tweet