Devils Advocate

[elster]

Why do people say " I was/am playing devils advocate"

Surely if you don't agree with the point, shut it.

Or do some people just get kicks from "heated debate"

[NiceCupOfTea]

It's to present another side of an argument - playing devil's advocate doesn't necessarily mean you agree with that point of view, but are presenting it to balance a debate.

How is debate a bad thing?

[chilled]

I "play devil's advocated" When I agree with the point, but it misses a wider issue.

[spikeyhead]

NiceCupOfTea said:

How is debate a bad thing?

Depends if you're a master of it

[Shaw Tarse]

elster said:

Why do people say " I was/am playing devils advocate"

Surely if you don't agree with the point, shut it.

Or you may agree with the point but can see the other point of view?

elster said:

Or do some people just get kicks from "heated debate"

It's PH

[deckster]

Or you may have got bored of people saying yes you're quite right, i quite agree, god we're clever, can I suck your dick?

Sometimes its fun to pop into a god debate and push a fundamentalist creationist viewpoint, see how long you can last

[elster]

deckster said:

Sometimes its fun to pop into a god debate and push a fundamentalist creationist viewpoint, see how long you can last

Generally when people say I'll just play devils advocate they are making a really dumb opinion.

So I think this could be the only reason.

[Jasandjules]

Because often people suddenly agree with the advocate opinion - I suspect some people are afraid to disagree when the vast majority agree but once someone presents their point of view they start up.