Why should we argue?

It isn't unusual for me to argue about religion, god or society with my parents, sisters, friends and acquaintances. Their views might be drastically different from mine. There are also some ideas that we agree on and others that we give in to because we realize that the other person has a point.

We do get emotional at times, when we're not just arguing about something abstract and some arguments do not have a clear winner. Despite all that, I enjoy these arguments because they're the best way to reason and to get a fresh perspective on ideas and issues.

However, there are people who cannot (or do not) want to argue reasonably. They have strong convictions but will not suffer anyone else to challenge these convictions, mostly because they know that their arguments stand on weak legs. I've come across quite a few people like that. I'll give you a couple of examples.



1. There was once a debate in class on the issue of vegetarianism. I'm a non-vegetarian myself and there were quite a few people speaking for and against it. The vegetarians emphasized the fact that animals do feel pain. At one point, a girl remarked that life is more important than god because it is tangible and should be respected. She felt that before we respect and worship various gods, we should be able to respect life.

At this point, a girl who was speaking for non vegetarianism immediately stood up, incensed, and began a heated tirade about how animals can never be more important than god. This turned the debate from the actual topic to another one which no one wanted to discuss in the first place.



2. There was pastor in the church I used to go to who was talking during the sermon about a young man who had approached him. He was an atheist and wanted to talk to him about religion and faith. By his own account, the young man had been polite and inoffensive, but after a while when the pastor realized that he could not satisfy the young man's questions, he became angry and told him that he had not come to him to believe but merely to argue.

He was saying this to us to show that faith and belief should not be questioned. I felt that this was wrong, even then. How could the young man believe if his questions weren't answered?



We are taught not to talk back, not to argue with older or wiser people and to take things on faith because 'we won't understand'. I'm not saying that we should be offensive or disrespectful to other beliefs and opinions, but don't we have the right to question?

And about the first example, even though I was on the same side as her, I felt that the second girl had ceded the argument by default to the other side merely because she flew into a passion and chose to avoid the subject at hand by picking at a comment and turning it into something else. Even if the argument had been about god in the first place, I didn't think that she had behaved very well. And that makes a huge difference in arguments.

 Be on your best behaviour, please.