Organizing a Debate in Bangalore

[Ajita Kamal]

(Scroll up for poll)

Some members of Nirmukta Bangalore have proposed organizing public debates to promote freethinking.

The Bangalore group might be best suited to organize a debate between freethinkers and believers along the lines of the famous Hitchens and Dawkins debates in the West. What are your thoughts on this?

Please vote and share your opinion by posting responses.

[siddharth]

Great idea. I don't live in Bangalore, but I'll help in any way I can from outside. By the way, who do you think could possibly be the guest speakers?

[palaeo]

This sounds really great. I'm not sure I would be able to help though. I think the allianz de francais is a really cool place for these kinds of things.

[uglyhunk]

(03-May-2010, 11:18 PM)siddharth Wrote: Great idea. I don't live in Bangalore, but I'll help in any way I can from outside. By the way, who do you think could possibly be the guest speakers?

Siddharth,

We are looking at a series of debates. I can break down this whole execercise into a series of following tasks...

1. Identify the subjects of the debate. At this stage we can come up with as many as we can. We can filter them to come up with the final list
2. Identify the speakers for each subject - for and against.
3. Once all this is finalized, the next task would be identifying the location.
4. Probably Mithun can helps us record the all this debate. He always talks about photogrpahy :-)

Tasks 1 and 2 should be in sequential. 3 and 4 can be done without any dependency.

What would you say ???? Any improvements or new ideas ??

[uglyhunk]

(03-May-2010, 11:55 PM)palaeo Wrote: This sounds really great. I'm not sure I would be able to help though. I think the allianz de francais is a really cool place for these kinds of things.

Paleo,

Where is this in Bangalore ??? Can you give some more info on this.

Cheers

[Sumanth]

Hi All

I'd like to add a few things to Raj's (UglyHunk) previous post:

While suggesting a topic kindly also keep in mind, let it not be too broad ended as it might get too contentious and multi faced often digressing from the main topic.

Also, we need an involving first debate as we do not hope to stop with this. The intention is to set up a constant source of influence through this channel, too. This debate is going to be a part of a series of periodic programs we hope to organize.

Cheers
Sumanth

[Ajita Kamal]

It's nice to see enthusiasm for this idea. Thanks to Sumanth for coming up with it!

I'm writing this post as a representative of the advisory board. If the Bangalore group can coordinate and come up with a solid proposal, the Nirmukta team can offer logistic and media support.

The board of advisors has not had a chance to discuss this issue yet, but it is possible that the websites and groups that are part of Nirmukta can work to collect donations online, provided there are no legal complications. This is a "we'll see" at the moment, but off-the-record, I don't see why it should not be possible.

But first, the Bangalore group should come up with as detailed a proposal as possible.

I am giving a talk at the Center For Inquiry in Long Island, New York, this Friday during which I will be talking about the work of FIRA and Nirmukta. If you have something (a basic idea) by then, I could mention the plans for the debate. CFI is the top freethought organization when it comes to organization and financing, so I could get some ideas and connections there.

Let's keep this going!

[manjuhb]

It is an excellent idea. I would like to support it in whichever way I can. I hope we find a good first speaker who can create a big wave of interest in the community.

[palaeo]

(04-May-2010, 08:50 AM)uglyhunk Wrote:

(03-May-2010, 11:55 PM)palaeo Wrote: This sounds really great. I'm not sure I would be able to help though. I think the allianz de francais is a really cool place for these kinds of things.

Paleo,

Where is this in Bangalore ??? Can you give some more info on this.

Cheers

The Allianz is in Vasantnagar. It's a beautiful place and they hold tons of cultural events. They hold the annual Queer Film Festival which is free to all so i'm pretty sure they are very progressive and accommodating.

http://bangalore.afindia.org/

[siddharth]

@uglyhunk and the rest:

it's great to see the response and the initial planning. The allianz idea is good, and although I have never been there, the one in Delhi is a great place for such events. I guess that it would be the same in Bangalore.

Here is a suggestion for the topic:
"This house believes that the Indian state has not lived up to its secular credentials since independence".
I understand that this is too broad though, both in terms of time frame and the canvas of political governance.

Maybe a topic which is more religion, theology and science specific would be better. "This house believes that 'Hinduism' and science are incompatible"

[uglyhunk]

Hi,

Some of us met this morning to take this idea forward. Here is the summary of the meeting

- Instead of debates it is decided that we start off with conducting a series of discussions on various topics. All the speakers will be from within freethinkers community. Each such meeting will have 3-4 speakers and a presenter.
- Form a core committee of members who own up various reponsibilities ranging from collating and finalizing topics and venue, identifying speakers and moderators etc.
- All these discussions will be recorded and uploaded in various video networking sites.


Action Items
-------------
1. Request all you guys to come up with topics you think would make for an interesting discussion. We will prioritize all those based on the availability of the speakers/subject matter experts.
2. Looking for ways to include folks who are not in banglaore in these discussion as well. So any conferencing solutions would be welcome.
3. Please do leave a note mentioning your subject of interest, whether you would like to be part of the panel or as a presenter for a particular topic. That would help us map folks to topics easily.
4. And finally, we would be glad to hear from folks with experience or passion in video production.

And finally thanks to Manoj, Bala, Manjunath, Sumanth and Nidhin for attending this meet. We also had a special guest Dr. Dinesh Mishra. He is from Chattisghar and has been an activist for about two decades.

That's it for now.

Cheers

[dnvarun]

it would be a good initiative and i ma not in banglore but please free to ask for nay help