But something relevant to our forum did happen to me today. I was on another buddhist forum, the PC one, and I had a materialist once again try to run away from me after 2 posts. I have been complaining for years about materialist being the fastest to run away from a debate, at least on buddhist forums. I really wanted to properly debate a materialist, I wanted a higher level, more in-depth debate. This is something good to do in order to understand their arguments, it's important for keeping your debating level high. Otherwise you might one day find yourself using weak arguments with the wrong person and embarrassing yourself.
So I googled and found a great place. It's an atheist forum that has a debating hall and a very open attitude, with people that have some debating ethics. I really did not expect to ever find atheist with debating ethics, especially since some years ago I've once visited an atheist forum and it was the lowest level of forum possible in terms of ethics. Plus it was basically more a political forum than an atheist forum. But this place I've found now is great. I even imported this cool avatar that I now have from an atheist version of myself that I found on that forum It also has a great announcement at the enterance:
http://www.atheistrepublic.com/forums/debate-room/view
If anyone want's to see me smashing atheist left and right with my big logical club, my topic is here: http://www.atheistrepublic.com/forums/d ... believe-itThe Debate Room
Atheism is a boundless subject and while some atheists may be very lax about their beliefs, some others may aim to achieve certain objectives. Just as devout believers have their own ideas and agendas, unswerving non-believers have their own. The Debate Room at Atheist Republic is a forum that urges people from both ends of the spectrum and even those in between to have healthy interactions, exchange opinions and participate in debates about any topic.
The number of topics that one can debate over in this forum is bounteous and the good thing is that Atheist Republic heartily welcomes all who want to participate, irrespective of whether they are secular individuals, non-believers or even those who do not see eye-to-eye with atheists.
We know that all individuals are entitled to their own point of view but Atheist Republic also believes that there is no harm in having one’s point of view challenged. We are of the opinion that unless people involve themselves in educative, logical and meaningful debates, they will be unable to evolve intellectually, understand others with tolerance and appreciate what lies on the other side.
If you have ideas that genuinely intrigue you or could possibly intrigue others, it is a great idea to initiate and participate in a debate at Atheist Republic’s Debate Forum. Either you contribute to an existing thread or you can even start a thread of your own. Just remember to be respectful to all users since every individual is entitled to his or her own beliefs. Besides, you only stand to gain when you can engage with another in a comprehensible conversation. As most wise people are believed to have said, war was never the means for peace.
I think such a section would be good if it would get non-buddhist traffic. Or maybe some on the forum that are not convinced by buddhism would have more freedom to speak there. It would also be beneficial for buddhist, since one of the 5 things buddha listed as reasons not to die yet is "having disciples skilled in refuting with arguments the thesis of other wanderers". I don't know if such a place would be as active and successful as that atheist debating hall, but it could be a good idea in attracting non-buddhist and converting them to our evil dogmatism and supertitions .