The Devil's Advocate

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Joining the debate club in college was probably one of my best decisions while there; I really enjoyed it. I'm going to use this forum to continue to develop weird/unusual arguments as a fun pastime and a way of giving myself practice in argumentation.


I am the smartest person in the world

this should be fun to fill out...not much in here yet though.

Some qualifications

I'm not going to argue that I am definitely the smartest person in the world, because that would be unreasonable. Instead I'm going to argue that I am probably the smartest person in the world.

Analogy from Sports:

Suppose you were trying to find the best basketball player in the world. What would be a good general strategy for doing it?

I think most people might agree that you'd be best off looking for people who had spent the most time practicing. But that might still leave you with a lot of people who will never be in the top


"Smart" should mean X

arg. that smart should mean X goes here (fill in X)


I am the person in the world who most has X

Ask yourself, "What kinds of traits would the smartest person in the world have?"

arg. that the smartest person in the world would probably have a big brain

but size isn't everything (analogy to basketball: you need to be big, but it's also a question of how much you've practiced)

arg. that the smartest person in the world would prob. be spending all of his/her time thinking


You should sell your soul to the Devil

a classic argument; not much in here yet, but this should be fun to fill out over time.


Your understanding of God and Satan is a distortion of the truth.
Analogy: When one person doesn't like another, he/she'll spread rumors about that other person, right?

ask yourself: How did you come
matrix analogy: you could be completely unaware of what reality actually is


arg. that satanic rituals could really work if done properly:
scientists are trying to figure out what the laws of the universe by observing the operations of the universe. It's like gamers trying to figure out what the source code to a videogame is by playing the game and observing what happens when they do various things.