Don't engage with devil's advocation and hypotheticals.

17 June 2026.

Ideally you shouldn't be wasting your time arguing in the first place, but for the purpose of this article we're going to assume this is necessary, as the scenario that follows will show.

I came across a public debate between an atheist and a religious person, they were arguing over the existence of God and the atheist argued that he can't see God, therefore God doesn't exist, to which the religious person stated "you can't see your brain, so does that mean it doesn't exist?"

The atheist was stumped, to the humour of the religious side, but he didn't have to be. All he had to do was ask a simple question, "hold on, are you actually denying the existence of my brain?". The religious person would respond "no, that was just a hypothetical" and the atheist person would steer the conversation back into actual arguments and convictions, not imaginary scenarios.

This lesson was taught to me by a politics teacher, in class, whenever we would debate regarding certain topics, she would shut down any points that would start with "well, some people would argue..." or "let's say that hypothetically..." or "you could say that...", she would interrupt them and ask "do you actually believe in the point you're saying, or are you playing devil's advocate?", she wanted to hear "I believe that..." or "I am arguing that..." and it's something that I think about everyday.

The religious person was playing devil's advocation, he didn't actually believe that the atheist person didn't have a brain, but by using a hypothetical scenario, he was able to take control of the narrative. This is a powerful tactic because using hypotheticals allows someone to get their point across at best, or at worst they can always just say "it's just a hypothetical, bro" whenever counterpoints are raised, you're wasting your time, energy and thinking arguing against a point that nobody in the debate actually believes in.

Ideally, good arguments should stand on their own without invoking another example. I myself don't use hypotheticals or play devil's advocation because I don't have to, the merit of my points are argued as is, but I rarely argue or debate to begin with since I have no interest in changing other people's mind and rarely do I come across genuine discussions where I see something to be learnt from.