Intelligence Squared Debates

[Drewish]

I know a lot of people here disagree with me politically, but I'm not off my rocker when I think that these debates are little more than political propaganda right?

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_ ... Id=7457039

Or am I wrong?

[leo-rcc]

I am attending a intelligence squared debate next Sunday. The topic is "Atheism is the new fundamentalism".

http://www.intelligencesquared.com/live

[Animavore]

The only one of these I've seen so far is the Hitchens/Fry vs Widdecombe/some bishop.
I'm not sure it was propaganda. The debate was about Is The Catholic Church a Force for Good. I think it was fair to say that the side against (Hitch/Fry) fairly trounced the side for. I think in this instance the debate had some positive effects. Before the debate there was a certain number for, another number against and an amount undecided. After the debate the opinions swung wildly in the favour of the against side with most of the undecideds going towards against and even some of the fors also going that way (so who knows the effect it had on the viewing public).
That said I have not seen one of these episodes dealing with politics yet. I can only imagine that in the case of politics it would be an exercise in propaganda because that's all politics seems to be to me in general anyway.