The better argument loses because content doesn't matter. Most of the posts on Pathfinder threads are very well written and presented with a fairly logical position to sustain their viewpoint. Most of the people posting on Pathfinder are above average intelligence and have an excellent education. But the point is that it's all subjective as to whether or not anyone accepts the others view point. When a position is set forth in print the author is utilizing a vast amount of information that never gets into the written opinion. This knowledge is clear to the poster but is not articulated in their writings because it is assumed that others also have some of this knowledge. We are all filtering our knowledge through such different world views that it is impossible to arrive at the same position. Thus the posters banter on over the most mundane details of each argument restating their claim to truth and logic.

The fact is that at some point the star known as our sun is going to burn out, and as it cools it will become a Red Giant, swelling in size and engulfing the entire solar system. All life forms as we know them will be incinerated and that substance that was once the basis for these great debates will become once more just cosmic debris. Bill, Monica, and the rest of us will just be part of enormous primordial soup that has no particular opinions of its own. It will be driven by forces unknown to us, but will incorporate all of our combined thoughts swirling around in a vast cloud of molecules that now agree on everything, because they have now been incorporated into cosmic knowledge. We will, although unrecognizable to the universe finally agree on all maters of what was once seemingly important, like Bill's affair with Monica and whether Paula really wanted an apology or was just a pawn of other forces trying to bring down a President.

Problem is who will care?