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timtyler comments on Let Them Debate College Students - Less Wrong
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I don't really see why you don't get it: EY says creationists can debate college students. TT points out that they are already getting plenty of attention - as a result of all the TLC lavished on them by the "new atheists". They appear on atheist documentaries, interview atheists on their documentaries, and generally bathe in the resulting media circus. There are many books written by learned men explaining why traditional religion is nonsense. Observers might be forgiven for thinking that there was some kind of real controversy here - instead of just a plague of ignorance and superstition.
You don't get it. Different forms of engagement cause different amounts of prestige to flow. Writing a book mocking UFO cults doesn't transfer prestige to UFO cults, but debating their leader in business suits does.
I am not clear on where I am supposed to have claimed equal effects on prestige.
People writing serious books about how there are no UFOs would probably have much the same effect as if they wrote serious books about how there is no God - it would make people think that there was a real issue there that was worth discussing and spending time on.
Ridicule is a bit different. Books by comedians taking the piss out of religious idiocy would not induce the same type of comments from me. For example, note that Pat Condell [http://www.patcondell.net/] was not in my list - even though he evidently spends a lot of time on religious issues.