I don't do formal debates, because formal debates where you have two people up on a stage in equal status, and each of them is given 20 minutes to give their point of view, and then 10 minutes for a rebuttal, or whatever, that creates the illusion that you really do have here two equal points of view of equal scientific standing.
Interpretation
Debates can create a false sense of equality between opposing views, regardless of their actual merit.
In this quote, Richard Dawkins critiques the format of formal debates, arguing that they can mislead audiences into believing that two opposing viewpoints are equally valid and scientifically supported. He points out that giving equal time to both sides can lead to the dangerous illusion that all perspectives hold the same weight, which is not true when one view is based on sound evidence and the other is not.
In practice
In a discussion on the value of education, someone might reference this quote to highlight the importance of recognizing credible sources.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.
Law is the highest reason implanted in Nature, which commands what ought to be done and forbids the opposite.
An idea's birth is legitimate if one has the feeling that one is catching oneself plagiarizing oneself.
Oh thrice fools are we who like new-born princes weeping in the cradle know not that there is a kingdom before them then let our Lord's sweet hand square us and hammer us and strike off the knots of pride self-love and world-worship and infidelity that He may make us stones and pillars in His Father's house.
I like a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it.
Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.
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