teknomom

Greg,
Yes, I bought the printed version of GWTW just so I have it even if we lost electricity. I do that for every important book I can afford. It is absolutely shocking, even after a hundred years.

Cheryl,
So Matt wants his PalTalk venue no matter what. Then let him have the same restrictions as you, including not allowing interruptions. But every formal debate has to have ground rules, which apply equally to both sides. Problem is, there is no neutral moderator, so he can break the rules with impunity. He gets the best of both worlds.

I’d recommend having someone with you who will have a stop-watch, and you have every right to cut him off after his allotted time. And he too must supply a written list to you, in all fairness, so you can make sure he sticks to what he wrote and not go off on one of his tangents. I would also require that both your list and his be posted online before the debate, on the website of someone who can be trusted not to alter them… hey, maybe one of those polite atheists would do this!

There is a good reason his listeners keep wanting to hear more from you, because they too know that he keeps cutting you off before you can make a point. If he had treated you with any degree of civility and let you finish a point, they wouldn’t keep asking for more. He wants sound bites, not depth.

If this comes to pass, you’ll have to be quick and pointed. That can seem impolite to those of us who value such qualities, but it’s the only thing he can comprehend. And for what it’s worth, a quick google search on Matt’s so-called polite atheists paints a much different picture. They have nothing nice to say about him, for the very same reasons we’ve seen in this debate. He shut down parts (all?) of his own message board because various people were being extremely rude, so for him to put you in their category is just a wild stretch and he knows it. He wants only to belittle you.

He’s a name-caller as you know, and commits a variety of other logical fallacies as well. But he’s hoping you won’t have time to call him out on them, much less see them. His listening audience must surely be aware of them though, because he makes such a big deal about them when others commit them. If they have ears to hear, they’ll see his double standard; he won’t be able to hide it.

And since he openly and publicly called you a heretic, it is hypocritical and a violation of scriptural teachings for him to even want to debate you. The fact that he does anyway, tells us all that he knows the charges he has leveled against you have no basis in scriptural fact.

As has been pointed out, pin him down on “ezer” and the Bible’s absolute silence on any establishment of hierarchy before and at the Fall. Make sure he doesn’t bring in any other scriptures to interpret this, since he won’t allow you that same privilege.

Well, got things to do. Hope this helps.