arguing with strangers: trigger warning

arguing with strangers: trigger warning

thirty people. one question. endless entrees included. everyone leaves understanding it better than they walked in.

has religion had a net positive or net negative impact on the world throughout history?

we're at ambar, and your ticket includes endless entrees for the night. eat while you argue. it's harder to be hostile to someone you're sharing a table with.

this one comes with homework. do the reading before you come. bring the examples, the history, the parts that complicate your own answer.

the format is built to make you see it from more than one place. you'll argue a side you may not hold, which means you have to build the strongest honest version of it. then you move to the side you actually want to talk through, and you work it out with people who got there differently than you did.

it's a genuinely hard question. religion has built hospitals, universities, and civil rights movements, and it has justified wars, conquest, and exclusion. most of us have only ever really examined one half of that ledger. the point of the night is to look at both, out loud, with people who see it differently.

capped at 30 so everyone gets the floor. structured so nobody dominates. hosted so it stays curious instead of combative.

you don't have to change your mind. you just have to be able to explain the other side well enough that someone who holds it would recognize themselves in it.

no debate experience needed. just do the reading and come hungry.