The Problem With Debates

I don't like debates very much. I certainly don't like the format where you have five minutes for the proposition and then rebuttal, rebuttal and voting. That's not how scientific disputes should be settled. Is it that style so often seems to win over substance, as far as popular opinion is concerned? Well people like to use your name in all manner of atheist events left and right. Hell, I'm guilty of it. We're first question about the kind of person we are - a self-confessed Atheist or Self Confessed Roman Catholic orself-confessed Muslim. But nobody would ever say self-confessively 'Aristotle' You've always been