Reply #7: A panda does not live in my garage, therefore they don't exist.

[Lerkfish]

Atheist: A Panda does not live in my garage, therefore they do not exist.

Me: The first part of your statement does not prove the second part of your statement.

Atheist: You're insane to think there are Pandas because there are obviously none in my garage! see!

Me: If I point out that absence of proof is not proof of absense, that makes me insane?

Atheist: yes, you believe in the fairy tale of pandas. Since I have never seen a panda, they cannot exist.

Me: I understand that for YOU, the question of the existence of pandas has been answered. For ME, I find your area of search narrow. In order to prove they don't exist would require covering a great deal of area, meaning the rest of the world. Since I cannot cover all that ground myself, I'm more at ease agreeing that a panda does not exist in YOUR garage, but I reserve the right to operate on the premise that pandas MAY exist somewhere else that you have not searched yet.

Atheist: You're being close-minded and superstitious.

Me: I fail to see how refusing to consider a question closed when all areas have not been searched can be refered to as "close-minded" when your decision call off the search at the end of your garage is considered "open-minded" or scientific.

Atheist: I don't have to prove there aren't any pandas elsewhere: the burden of proof is on YOU to prove they exist.

Me: But you see, I'm keeping my mind open that they may exist. You are saying they definitely don't exist. Since your assertion is more definitive and final than mine, it begs the burden of proof.
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gee, we can all do this sort of thing, can't we? We can show how ridiculous another person's point of view is by pretending to speak for them in a dialogue that we control. We can frame their arguments in a such a way as to provide answers we wish to provide in response to the straw man's arguments.

All day long I could pretend to know what others think and how they'd argue in an attempt to criticize them via analogy..similar to a controlled town hall meeting. Where I only get and have to answer questions I am familiar with or wish to receive.

bravo! Modem Butterfly! bravo!