I think something in the international arena should be debated. To be quite honest, i wouldn't want to debate, for example, whether bush should be re-elected. I am not from the US so would not follow that sort of thing.
just my 0.02

[edit on 26/9/2007 by shearder]

well, this bush can't be re-elected ... his brother can run, but said he wouldn't for a while because of the mess that has been made with the name. I guess father bush could, technically get another 4 years in ... cheney can run ... but knows better that he cannot win

I wouldn't want to get one of those nearly impossible sides to defend, like, the right to use nuclear force, or bush should declare national emergency and cancel the elections for whatever reason but I guess you can't always choose your position in a debate, which makes you exercise you mind ... trying to debate a side you cannot agree with reminds me of the episode of Star Trek: TNG where Riker has to try and prove Data is just a machine to make a fair trial so he could in turn save Data from being treated as just a machine What a conundrum

I guess it should be fun regardless ...

Registrations for this tournament will close on Friday. If we have not recieved 24 entries at that time, the first 16 on the list will form the tournament bracket and those who are unable to be included will recieve an advance call in a future event, as was done for those who were notified in advance of this tournament.

I see that some of you have your fighter titles now- hopefully you all will before Saturday, which is when the first round will begin.

Getting rather excited now...

Good luck everyone and let's enjoy it...

yeah, it IS fun to get dealt a random set of cards (topic & opponent) and then make the best of the cards you have. I wanted to be able to choose a topic but I now realize that the "not-knowing" is the fun part.

I really like the randomness of it also.

It helps hone your research skills when you get a topic your not familiar with or you end up debating on the side you may not agree with.

I suggest a link between autism and vaccinations..


I would be on this one.. But i dont think I can keep my attention long enough to do it...

I will write back before friday to let u know..

another topic suggestion: hypnotic regression uncovers valid data vs. uncovers mostly fantasy.

Registration is closed. There will be 16 Participants. I'm sorry we can't include our extra fighter. You will have first shot at the next event, and are also welcome to start a challenge match with either a non-fighter who is interested or with one of the inexperienced fighters (check out the challenge ladder thread in the debate forum- a ranking of two indicates that a member has only been in 1 debate.)

Threads will go up and debates will commence saturday afternoon.

message to the moderator and to whoever my opponent will be: I will be back online sunday morning to contribute my part to our debate opening. Looking forward to it!

I hope vagabond and questionarries take it easy on this po soul'o' mine
I am only a beginner

Thank you all for understanding how long it has taken me to get this done. I had a rather busy week and had to take a little time today.

Here are the matches. I will create the threads immediately.

Significant grace periods will be allowed for the first post by each participant, so no worries if somebody has business to attend to this weekend.

Round 1: Apex v Xtrozero How Does God Drown His Sorrows?
The flood stories, such as Noah's Ark, which exist in many cultures are all based on a single global flood.

Round 1: GAOTU789 v Budski I'll be back
Reincarnation is real.

Round 1: FreeThinkerIdealist v pstiffy Bad Boys
Humans are inherently immoral.

Round 1: dntwastetime v skyfloating Schools out For-EVER!
Mandatory public education is necessary for a developed nation.

Round 1: Beelzebubba v gallopinghordes Pots, Kettles, and Suicide Bombers
If America's economic and political situation were similar to that of Saudi Arabia, Americans would also resort to terrorism.

Round 1: IsaacKoi v azchuck Doctor Evil
Science has done more harm than good in human history and needs to be strictly regulated.

Round 1: more_serotonin_pls v shearder Human Extinction
Humans will most likely become extinct within the next 1,000 years.

Round 1: souls v scientist Should Santa declare war on Russia?
Nations have a right to assert territorial claims to the North Pole and seaways which provide access to it.

Hey count me in for the next one please.

who is pro and who is anti?

Pro and Con positions are in the threads. So are the specific propositions you are debating (don't go by the thread title, read the instructions).

If your name appears first in the thread, that means you have to pro and you post first.

Guys, I'm not mad because everyone here is new and I really appreciate the initiative you all showed in jumping at this tournament so quickly, but it's REALLY important that you read the instructions and think critically about how you do things.

If you don't know who is pro and who is con, you didn't read the directions.

If you post before it is your turn, you didn't read the directions.


Also, although it isn't explicitly against the rules (we've talked about putting it in the rules but it just hasn't happened so far) it's generally not very impressive if you use extensive quotes from your sources. The right thing to do is to argue in your own words and use your links to prove that what you are saying is true. Using your sources to present your argument for you defeats the point of debating on randomly assigned topics.

Feel free to ask questions, feel free to look at past debates to see how people use formatting, links, inductive and deductive logic, etc to present an argument, and don't sweat it if make a mistake because it'll be alright, but learn from it.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I had forgotten that some of you might never have actually visited the ATS debate forum. here's a link to it so you can find your threads. your names are in the thread titles. If your name is first, you have first post. Remember to read the instructions in the first post- that contains all of the rules.

That was harder than I thought. Trying to post an opening statement just doesn't feel like a regular post. Oh well, It's done now. I must have written and re-written that post six times and still not completely satisfied. I know that this is going to be fun though.

I am really looking forward to all these debates. Some really good pairings this round with some great choices for topics.

Done. Thanks for making these tourney's possible Vagabond. Good luck scientist.

Thanks Vagabond and good luck to all. Let's have fun and give good quality debates. This is my first and i hope i can match my opponent.