< Answer/Response: Please look at the following useful explanations to get the most from this site.

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST- Introduction

THIS IS A WEBSITE that is different from what you have seen before. So please give it some time to learn how it works... it should prove useful to your needs. 

This website is supposed to help you actually find answers to some of your hardest questions. Typically the questions are so hard, that they need special tools to break them down to help us really see how to solve the questions. Some of the hardest questions we have are the alleged contradictions of the Bible, that are pointed out from all over the Internet. This website is designed specifically to handle such questions. And thus there are a variety of tools/formatting we use to help us do this. So please familiarize yourself with these tools/formatting we use throughout the website. 

Sometimes some things can get confusing. We'll try our best to make it as intuitive as possible while maintaining the utility of the website. Please contact us if there are any confusions.  

 

Q&A Format

All argument discussions start off with a question, like a Q&A format. For each question, we have many different types of responses. We include some responses that we agree with and some that we don't, although they may be strong.  

 

Dialog Symbols:   <    and   >>

You’ll notice symbols like     <     and      >>     often... these individually represent responses and titles, with the actual detailed argument following it.

<        means a response/argument that we, the creators of this site, agree with.

>>      means a response/argument that we don’t agree with, but someone mentioned it or is a good counter argument against our arguments.  The basis for the direction of these arrows is that     <     is directing to outside the page, as if the reply is coming from the website to others. And the       >>     is directing towards the page as if presenting a response from others to this website.

Whenever you see many of these     >>    <    symbols indenting each time, it means an active debate going back and forth from both arguing sides.

This helps to show you quickly what we agree with and what we don’t without using words.

 

Argument Strengths Indicator (STRONG, OK, WEAK)

When you see these words (STRONG, OK, WEAK), these are our personal evaluations of how strong the argument presented is. It is odd to admit, but there are some arguments we agree with that are weak, and there are some arguments we don't agree with that are strong.

Why have this? There are a couple of reasons:

1) when you just want the strong arguments, and don't care about the weak arguments, this is useful.

2) you don't have to waste your time reading something of unknown strength and then finding out it's a weak argument after all. It is very common to waste time reading something across the Internet only to find it weak.

3) if you want, you can read weak arguments and if you think we have rated them as weak inappropriately, you can discuss it with us and give us your reasons.

4) you see our personal evaluations of how the argument strengths are.

5) we let you know what has been said before, whether weak, OK, or strong quality, merely for your own information.

The argument strength evaluations change often, as we get newer arguments.

Weak arguments are usually found at the bottom of each question.

 

Hierarchy/Tree View

This allows you see discussions/dialog like a tree. Discussions have many subtopics and sometimes these subtopics are important. The more the arguments are indented, the more branched/specific it gets into the subject matter.

Hierarchy view makes it simple to see these branches and how they visually are related to the topic. Many standard articles and papers that you find across the Internet don’t incorporate this useful feature and thus can make it hard to keep track of all the pros and cons of each argument.

Example: 

Who is God?

    < God is the Creator of the universe.

         >> But the Bible said that Jesus created the universe!

              < True, but God is Jesus.  

    < God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

          >> I thought God was our God too? 

               < If your God is the the one that created the universe, that's the same God Abraham and others worshiped.  

As you can see here, each arrow represents a response, and the more specific responses you have,  the more indented it gets. This is a hierarchy view. Without the hierarchy view, it would be flat and somewhat hard to see the structure of the debate. Typically, many articles and papers are flat, and thus the structure is hard to see. So when there are disagreements, you can't see them easily in a typical paper as you would here. 

 

Argument Types

You’ll notice words like (BIBLICAL) and (STATISTICAL) besides arguments. These words tell you what type of arguments they are for your convenience.

This makes it convenient for you to simply skip to certain desired argument types rather than needing to skim through such as you’d do in a regular article. For example, if you’re an agnostic, you’d prefer to read logical arguments first and/or only those arguments. If you’re a Christian, you may want to skip to read Biblical arguments first, esp if you're low on time. 

Description of Argument Types
Logical means it doesn't make reference to anything like the Bible, statistics, or personal experience. It’s just mostly or purely an argument dealing with logic. Usually, this keyword is hidden, since most arguments are logical (hopefully!).

Biblical means it makes reference to biblical concepts, scriptures, parables, etc.

Statistical means it makes reference to facts dealing with statistics, like the fact that only 2% of women commit abortions because of rape.

Anecdotal means it makes reference to personal experience that tells a truth.

 

Conclusion 

That's it so far! Good luck understanding the material in this formatting.  

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