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<blockquote data-quote="TheVoiceofReason" data-source="post: 2393853" data-attributes="member: 260456">shooting ourselves in the foot? I recently watched a video from TAM 8 (The Amazing Meeting) where astronomer, Dr. Phil Plait, expresses his concerns about the way that skeptics and critical thinkers are responding in online debates and discussions. Here&#039;s a link to the video http://vimeo.com/13704095 for anyone willing to watch it ( It clocks in at just over 30 minutes, if you have the time, I think you&#039;ll find it interesting.)&nbsp; &nbsp; In it, he says that while visiting blogs and discussion boards &quot;Instead of relying on the merits of the arguments, which is really what critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning is all about; it seems that vitriol and venom are on the rise.&quot;&nbsp; He then goes on to discuss how this kind of debating is counter-productive to getting people to think introspectively, and actually reinforces their irrational beliefs. I agree with what he said, and after watching it, I couldn&#039;t help but think about R&amp;S (among other places) where believers are routinely called things like &quot;morons&quot; and &quot;idiots&quot;&nbsp; (I&#039;ll admit, i&#039;m even guilty of it myself).&nbsp; So my question is:&nbsp; In your opinion, is R&amp;S actually doing more harm than good to the promotion of critical-thinking and logic?Thank you in advance for your answers.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheVoiceofReason, post: 2393853, member: 260456"] shooting ourselves in the foot? I recently watched a video from TAM 8 (The Amazing Meeting) where astronomer, Dr. Phil Plait, expresses his concerns about the way that skeptics and critical thinkers are responding in online debates and discussions. Here's a link to the video http://vimeo.com/13704095 for anyone willing to watch it ( It clocks in at just over 30 minutes, if you have the time, I think you'll find it interesting.) In it, he says that while visiting blogs and discussion boards "Instead of relying on the merits of the arguments, which is really what critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning is all about; it seems that vitriol and venom are on the rise." He then goes on to discuss how this kind of debating is counter-productive to getting people to think introspectively, and actually reinforces their irrational beliefs. I agree with what he said, and after watching it, I couldn't help but think about R&S (among other places) where believers are routinely called things like "morons" and "idiots" (I'll admit, i'm even guilty of it myself). So my question is: In your opinion, is R&S actually doing more harm than good to the promotion of critical-thinking and logic? Thank you in advance for your answers. [/QUOTE]

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