Is The Truth Overrated
Wednesday the 7th of March saw the return of the "Past
vs Present Debate" in celebration
of 150 years of CUS.
Held in the beautifully refurbished Library Room, the war of
words entertained the crowd gathered especially as the two teams contained
former Trinity College and UCD debate sparring partners, Dr. David Kenny and Dr.
Noel McGrath
The motion read "This House Believes that the Truth is
overrated", Nathan Lyons Duffy took to the podium to open the debate. He
lambasted the truth as nothing more than an endeavour unbecoming of a civilised
society.
Aaron Tracy was quick to respond as the first opposition
speaker and provided an insightful analysis of the value of truth in our lives.
Next came Daniel Stairs who kept the debate grounded firmly
in reality and rallied around the belief that the truth is a needless pain we
need not suffer.
Peter Hanrahan came
out all guns blazing with fiery rebuttal and a fresh take on the importance of
truth via a scientific lens.
Dr. David Kenny stepped forward to dispel any notion that
the truth was a clear thing and rebutted the proposition arguments with ease.
He convincingly argued that by its very inconclusive and subjective nature it
should not be accorded the value the opposition would accord to it.
Then came Diarmuid ÓhUallacháin who took aim at Duffy's view
of the truth as a pointless goal for humanity. He argued that the truth is
something which inspires us to be better and drives us in our search for
understanding.
To close the case for the proposition we had Gabhan
O'Tighearnaigh who offered a compelling case for why the proposition had won
out. He believed that the opposition had confused not overrating the truth with
disregarding it entirely, a confusion he took advantage of.
Finally, Dr. Noel McGrath took to the stand to tear down the
proposition bench and show how they were in fact the confused ones. He provided
a passionate and informative speech which got the audience thinking.