The Benefits of Smoking Actually Outweigh the Risks

"You claim that smoking has it's benefits, but can one achieve those same medical benefits without smoking?"Well, can one achieve the same benefits of alcohol without drinking? Of course, yes, but the benefits still remain."Does smoking damage your lungs in any way?"Well, does drinking damage your liver in any way? In response to both of these quotes, I would compare cigarette smoking to drinking alcohol. There are benefits just as there are risks.In response to death by a disease 'caused' by smoking being about as possible as dying in vietnam, I would respond that there are many risks in life which have many average statistics stating the chances we face of dying by them. In addition, according to this link: http://www.livescience.com... the chances of being killed by an act of violence, globally, is about 14% for men, and 7% for women, on average. A better example would be this list of possible ways to die, along with their statistical possibilities of happening:http://health.howstuffworks.com...some statistics shown here I want to hightlight include:- 1 out of 6 chance of heart disease- 1 out of 303 chance of car accident- 1 out of 28 chance of stroke- 1 out of 130 chance of accidental poisoning of toxic substancesThere are many ways to die, and there are many different risks of death for many things which, statistically, have a good chance of happening by average.As per my opponent's claim concerning averages in terms of life spans, I provide this example - lets say that there exists a drug which causes some people to die at age 25, and others to die at age 80. If we had an even number of each group of people, the average age of death for this drug would be approximately 52.5 years of age. So again, statistics are helpful, but they tend to be subjective as statistics do not always portray a clear picture of the circumstances because there can be many factors which influence the numbers in such a statistic. Another example is if I had three people stung by bees in one room, and they all turned out to be allergic and died from an allergic reaction, and I fallaciously delared that all bee stings must be venomously toxic - when this isn't really always true. So, in response to whether or not I deny your claim, I would say that I have a hunch that the statistics presented may not be showing a completely clear image of the situation.So, as for my closing arguments, I would like to point out that life is full of risks. Crossing the street has risks, eating a quarter-pounder burger has risks, climbing a mountain has risks... the only way to escape risks is to never leave your house, but even then you're at risk for becoming a rather creepy person! The instant we walk out the door of our house, we enter a dangerous world which could kill us at any moment, but I believe that at the end of the day, we shouldn't let fear control us and keep us from living life. As Ferris Bueller had said in his famous movie, "Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."My opponent will now add his/her closing arguments to the debate, so the argument will finally be left up to the voters. I would like to thank my opponent for this debate and provide a vitual handshake for a very enlightening argument. I look forward to any debates we may have again in the future.