Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
Christy, on our last program, you demonstrated the historical importance of debate in free societies. Can you give our listeners some of the individual, practical benefits of learning to debate?

Christy Shipe:
Sure! Debate involves logical thinking and persuasive communication, which are skills that really every person needs for life. If you want to learn how to make wise decisions, if you want to learn how to analyze another person’s arguments or reasoning, if you want to learn how to persuade someone to your point of view, debate can really help you learn those skills.

The fact is that really we’re all using logical and persuasion virtually every day—so why not learn to do it well? There’s also some spiritual benefits. I think that debate helps give you the logical skills you need to understand and analyze Scripture, to compare another ideas against Scripture, and really see what Truth is.

I believe these are skills God wants every Christian to develop in order to fully love Him with our minds. And although debate is not the only way to learn that skill, it is one of the best methods that I’ve seen for teaching these invaluable skills.

Mike:
Christy, thanks so much for sharing those ideas. I’m Mike Farris.