Verbal communication is more harmful than beneficial to the world...

I seriously laughed out loud at this...when no one else is around, and that's hard to do. Bravo. I was hoping you would notice that my topic seemed a bit paradoxical to my opening argument. And you did...very nice. You also managed to get angry on the internet...another nice one. What I did was called a debate strategy. My topic was that VC is more harmful than benificial to the world. My opening argument was that talking creates too much counterproductive information. Now technically, that is in no way paradoxical. It goes to show that humans not only excessively harm the earth but also themselves--it's additional information. But, I'll give you a break and say that, in an implied sense, it is a bit paradoxical, because I talked about humans and then criticized you for not addressing the planet earth. Now here's the clincher... had you been sharp enough to turn my own words against me right off the bat, simply asking the question of: "The word 'world' has multiple meanings. Why are you only addressing humans?" then there would be no way I could win...because I would have imploded, failing to answer my OWN question of debate. You would have beaten me at my own game. However, you didn't do so. You fell for my trap...the bait of which was to purposely stray a little off topic. You bit and went off topic yourself. You should have been quicker on the draw. Just for kicks (and giggles)... You argue that "barbecue sauce isn't necessarily harmful to pigs. Killing them is." Amen to that. You're absolutely right. However, that is a totally different situation. Comparing apples to oranges reveals your weakness: generalizing. The fact that verbal communication (which, by definition, is using words to exchange ideas with one another) led to the knowledge of good and evil (such as in the book of Genesis) serves as a very large catalyst of the harm humans have done to one another and the environment. Once a person knows what he can do to negatively affect others, the battle is lost. He will naturally be overtaken by greed, because greed is the basis of all mankind. And, because harming people is simply more fun. Once Eve, who was VERBALLY tempted by the devil, knew that she could disobey God and eat from the tree, the temptation was too great for her to resist. She ate of it, and things got worse. She and Adam became ashamed of nudity. Cain killed Abel because of jealousy. Wars started to occur. People would murder each other for land and power. Michael Jackson became a pop music star (hee hee). Mankind became worse and worse until nowadays, the message being sent to the youth is essentially: "Screw everybody else. Just worry about yourself." And things will only continue to get worse. Global warming (which can basically be blamed on one thing: cars) will probably lead to the extinction of humans. In the words of Johnathan Edwards..."mankind will naturally descend to its lowest state." And all these problems blossomed from one event: the devil verbally tempting Eve. Or, if you don't believe in the story of creation, then the first "sin" by the first man. Now for the irony of this whole subject... we have both created very detailed and very long arguments, but the whole basis of the argument is extremely simple: whether or not verbal communication is more harmful to the world than beneficial. Logically speaking, verbal communication can't be, as a whole, more beneficial. It has led to the knowledge of evil, which has led to temptation, which has led to sin. Has verbal communication made society more efficient? Definitely, because of technology. But that's not a good thing, for the more efficient we become, the closer our doom creeps. And you have failed to prove the opposite, because there is no opposite. It's fact. Checkmate.