From another book I was browsing through today:
Stupidity Training
The conversation between a True Believer and a True Skeptic isn’t much of a conversation, really.
What you have are two people who are dead-set in their opinions ready to say just about anything to justify those opinions.
It’s not an exploration of ideas, but a chest-pounding shouting match.
He who can yell the loudest and use the cleverest persuasive linguistic tricks wins.
When people talk this way and it’s presented as “intelligent conversation” it trains people to think that’s what intelligent conversation is supposed to sound like.
If they haven’t seen an actual egoless intelligent conversation between people who are actually looking for the truth, they won’t know any better.
This same pseudo-intelligent conversation takes place on most of the news “debate” shows as well.