There is a children’s puzzle which consists of 15 numbered square blocks arranged in a frame large enough to hold 16, four by four, leaving one empty space. You can’t take the blocks out of the frame. You can only slide a block into the empty space from an adjacent position. The puzzle is to bring the blocks into some particular arrangement.
The mathematics of which arrangements are accessible from which others is not important here. The key thing is that no matter how you move the blocks around, there is always an empty space. Wherever the space is, you can always move a block into it, but however fast you move the blocks, they never fill the frame.
I have not heard of this theologian before, but ciphergoth’s description of him firing off piles of pet arguments faster than you can point to the holes does suggest the sliding block metaphor, but he’s playing with a much larger set of blocks. At any rate, it is utterly unlike the sedate, civilised pursuit of truth observed on Bloggingheads. It is theatre addressed to the audience, not the antagonist. As far as he is concerned, you would just be one of his supporting cast.
If a debate is arranged, I second the advice to prepare as well as possible, attending not just to the specific arguments he uses and how others fared against them, but also the theatrics. It may help that Bloggingheads does not have a live audience. I am 90% sure that if he agrees to debate you, he will ask to do so in front of one.
There is a children’s puzzle which consists of 15 numbered square blocks arranged in a frame large enough to hold 16, four by four, leaving one empty space. You can’t take the blocks out of the frame. You can only slide a block into the empty space from an adjacent position. The puzzle is to bring the blocks into some particular arrangement.
The mathematics of which arrangements are accessible from which others is not important here. The key thing is that no matter how you move the blocks around, there is always an empty space. Wherever the space is, you can always move a block into it, but however fast you move the blocks, they never fill the frame.
I have not heard of this theologian before, but ciphergoth’s description of him firing off piles of pet arguments faster than you can point to the holes does suggest the sliding block metaphor, but he’s playing with a much larger set of blocks. At any rate, it is utterly unlike the sedate, civilised pursuit of truth observed on Bloggingheads. It is theatre addressed to the audience, not the antagonist. As far as he is concerned, you would just be one of his supporting cast.
If a debate is arranged, I second the advice to prepare as well as possible, attending not just to the specific arguments he uses and how others fared against them, but also the theatrics. It may help that Bloggingheads does not have a live audience. I am 90% sure that if he agrees to debate you, he will ask to do so in front of one.