All Debates
You are browsing through all debates. You can refine the results by using the drop-down boxes above. You can view more information about each debate by clicking Show Details at right.
Drug addiction has long been thought of as a choice one makes freely. However, recent neuroscience has shown the relationship been addiction and physiology. The dominant trend in neuroscience is now to say that addiction is a "brain disease."It may be interesting for you to read this article before posting: http://www.issues.org/17.3/leshner.htm
Do you think that addiction is a brain disease? if so, do you think there is free will involved, or is it merely a deterministic process, which does not admit free choice?
The purpose of this debate is to take the opposite position from the one you would normally support. It is good exercise for a debater to take a position he or she disagrees with, in order to better understand their opponents' position and strengthen debate skills.
If you are an atheist, argue the opposite and say "There is a god"
If you believe in god, argue the opposite and say "There is no god"
I've been wanting to see how a debate like this would turn out.
Since his election, Tea-party and other conservative activists have been carrying signs comparing president Obama to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Is this a fair comparison, or a hyperbolic exaggeration?
The disciplines of the "humanities", including literature, philosophy, and history, are under attack in the university. Departments and faculty are being thinned out, and the argument is increasingly made that these areas of study are no longer critical to our society. For example, Stephen Hawking recently declared the "End of philosophy," arguing that philosophy had been superceded by the natural sciences.
Do you think the humanities are still relevant to our society, or do you think that these are obsolete relics of a bygone age, which should be abandoned in favor of empirical scientifc methods of inquiry?
Does arguing on this website do anything to benefit society or humanity, or is it just another way to let off steam?
Are we helping the world or wasting our time?
Please offer arguments to support your position, rather than simply voicing your opinion.
This is inspired by another recent debate which asks whether Europeans were wrong to invade North America. Because the "yes" side is winning in that debate at the moment, I'm creating a secondary Debate, which asks:
Let's assume for the sake of argument that the Europeans were wrong to kill/enslave millions of Native Americans, erase their culture and history, and force them onto reservations,
Should we do anything about it?
For example, should they be given some kind of compensation (money, power, etc), or just allow things to continue as if nothing happened? (ie, continue the status quo).
Please offer arguments to support your position, rather than simply voicing your opinion.