So when did you last have an argument? When did you last have a dialogue with people with whom you disagreed? I think that many lessons can be drawn from this YouTube Christian versus Muslim where both are obviously very well informed and are jousting with each other without loss of respect. The first thing that I learn is that you need to back up your opinion was fact. Fear and logic do not make good bedfellows.

Its worth looking at the etymology of the word

argument (N.)

“statements and reasoning in support of a proposition or causing belief in a doubtful matter,” from Old French arguement “reasoning, opinion; accusation, charge” (13c.), from Latin argumentum “a logical argument; evidence, ground, support, proof,” from arguere “make clear, make known, prove” (see argue). The sense in English passed through “subject of contention” (1590s) to “a quarrel” (by 1911), a sense formerly attached to argumentation.

The meaning of discussion is slightly different from the above.

discussion (n.)

If these speakers in the video were afraid of the other I don’t think we would get the tone or quality of conversation that we see. After looking at the video this is what I have learned. Both are good listeners though both have their diametrically opposed point of view but they are able to think clearly enough to disentangle themselves from any emotionality and just stick to the historical facts as in this case.

You can tell that the cogency of the arguments is gripping the audience because they are listening in raptor tension and do not talk amongst themselves or go away and leave the scene. The honesty of both the interlocutors is clear to see but also it is clear that they have blind spots and it seems that one of them decides not to admit a weak point but just continue the same rhetoric and this was continued by someone else in the crowd after the two people agreed to differ and shook hands and close the conversation.

What happened was that the Christian then decided to engage with the other people who had been listening including a young Muslim lady who was articulate and challenging and if he had not had his facts around him, I wonder what the result would have been. It is plain to see that all conversations do not have a clear and clean ending and some end up with more questions than answers. Some end up with verbal or physical aggression.

In the mix we must include the spiritual development on the part of the audience if you believe that everything is meant to be, then the listeners are drawn by some unconscious force to be at the scene and listen to the dialogue.

What is our aim in arguing?

When we engage in an argument with someone or let’s say a lively discussion, what to do we expect to achieve? If we hope that the other person will magically come round to our point of view and abandoned their territory then I think we’re going to be waiting for a long time. I would have thought that a sensible and realistic aim is to introduce some seeds into the mind of the other person to maybe at some future time causing their parameters of thinking to change or be modified.

I suppose it is true in the political field as well. If I tell someone there is no such thing as the covid virus, that it was made up, and in any event, viruses are dead things that cannot jump or hop or hump then my listener will freeze me out and run away.

If I ask someone what evidence they can give me for the existence of the virus and they cannot come up with any evidence apart from repeating what they have read in the legacy media then that puts them in a weaker position. I believe it is called a war of attrition.

They say it takes seven statements on different occasions to cause a person to change their view from one stance to another,  such is the stubbornness and territory of the human brain.

I’m sure I am the same on some topics except I don’t want to admit it. I tend to be dismissive of people whose views I don’t agree with without seeing where they come from or taking the trouble to know the road that they have walked. They say that unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes you do not know who they are.

My impatient side does not like this but I acknowledge there may be some truth in it.