Don't teach them to debate!

It seems that there is a lot of interest in Christian education about teaching kids and adults how to debate for their faith. I probably agreed with this one day in my past, but I've come to the conclusion that this is a very, very, very bad idea.

I'll pretend that someone is interested in knowing why I think it's a bad idea, and I'll tell you. I am probably more prepared to debate scientific, intellectual and philosophical reasons for believing in Christianity than 95% of Christians in America.... and I've had my head handed to me time after time.

Now, the head-handing is usually the result of atheists "cheating," or lying, but it really doesn't matter why. The end result is always an atheist feeling smug and more confident in their own faith while I scratch my head trying to figure out 'where that came from.'

In the end (at least for now), I have become a passionate proponent of discipleship and discussion. If we'll start becoming disciples and making disciples, we'll be better prepared to defend our faith. If we'll do that defense in a casual conversational style rather than in a defensive/offensive debate style, we'll be able to open doors and show that Christianity is the only rational belief system while establishing relationships and trust in those we get to know this way.

I guess most of the reason that debate no longer works is because debate is truly a lost art. You can't have a debate when one side is constantly changing their ground and recklessly abandon lost ground while they ignore the very (faulty) foundations they attempted to lay five minutes before....

oh, well.... Just don't waste too much time "teaching them to debate." It's futile.