Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Lehigh96, post: 1591360, member: 15309&quot;]I guess I will have to be the contrarian in this thread.&nbsp; You see, I believe that the path to enlightenment is through good honest debate between those with opposing positions.&nbsp; The important thing to remember is that while engaging in a debate, your chances of getting your opponent to stand up and admit that he/she was wrong, and agree with everything you are saying is almost impossible.&nbsp; The primary reason is that there usually is no definitive right and wrong, just opinion based on perspective.&nbsp; Getting someone to change their opinion is extremely difficult.&nbsp; So one might ask, what is the point?&nbsp; The point is that the purpose of the debate is to convince those who have not already formed and opinion on the subject or are not firmly entrenched at one extreme or the other.&nbsp; It is akin to politics where the debates are designed to sway the votes of the moderates/independents, not the partisan voters.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example, Doug and I tend to disagree about many topics within numismatics.&nbsp; He is a &quot;black and white&quot; thinker and remembers the days when numismatics was very &quot;black and white.&quot;&nbsp; The application of market grading in today&#039;s numismatics creates all different shades of grey across many aspects of grading.&nbsp; I understand it, accept it, and endorse it.&nbsp; Doug understands it, disagrees with it, and does not endorse it (most of it anyway).&nbsp; There is no way I can change Doug&#039;s perspective or opinion.&nbsp; But by engaging him in debate, I can provide all of the new members and lurkers of this forum with the information that they need to form their own opinion on whatever the subject may be.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Lastly, we need to ask ourselves:&nbsp; why do we constantly engage in the same silly debates/arguments over and over and over again?&nbsp; The answer is simple.&nbsp; An internet forum has a life of it&#039;s own.&nbsp; At any given time it&#039;s membership and readership is unique.&nbsp; That is to say that every time we engage in a dead horse debate, we will always have new readers.&nbsp; Therefore, while the dead horse debates may be stale to long time members, they are invaluable to the new members who may be seeing the debate for the very first time.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in