I believe that an anarcho-capitalist attitude should be utilized wrt this issue: make use of an arbiter for the discussion! This is the only way that we can avoid the clashing of ideas in cacophony. Rather, we should ask one of our friends, or a stranger who is acquainted with the idea, to moderate a discussion so that whoever is listening may efficiently digest the points discussed. If it is a discussion in which one person wishes to convert the other, there is no discussion, and each person’s worldviews just simply clang together, as we saw in the OP.
Anyway, I believe that a debate along the lines of the John Lennox versus Richard Dawkins is more akin to a civilized discussion. Lennox even goes on to say that if we are to be intellectually honest, we must not consider the use of force in the planting of ideas. In short, he supports individualism. If you are interested in more of the discussion, check out: http://fixed-point.org/index.php/video/35-full-length/164-the-dawkins-lennox-debate
That sounds all good and well (actually, to be frank, it doesn’t really…I see something like that leading to all sorts of problems), but even still, supposing that would work out as harmoniously as you seem to think it would, I don’t see any practical way that could implemented in the real world. Every time you’re having a conversation and the subject ventures into a specified realm, you’re going to go “wait wait! I gotta go get Peter!”?
I agree it is inconvenient, and there are probably a whole slew of issues with this scheme, but what kind of reward is there in the type of debate from the OP? I believe that a third party would help to increase the amount of impact a discussion has, especially relative to the thunderfoot video.
Maybe…but for one thing these are two guys who essentially dedicate their lives to this…meaning they’re fine to stand there for almost an hour and just go round and round. They probably could or should have gone to a stage somewhere and gotten a moderator (although, I tend to agree with hashem that this is much more interesting. and entertaining.)
Again, it may be a fun idea, but I don’t see how this could be applied to regular people, let alone in an everyday real-world setting.