[rhraziel]

I went back to college a couple of years ago in order to get a four year degree. One of the classes I had to take was public speaking. I'm not the most social person in the world so speaking in front of a crowd is not my strong suit.

There were a couple of speeches, however, where we had the flexibility to talk about things that we are interested in. My "informational" speech, for example, was on 4chan and anonymous. We also did a persuasive speech on which I talked about the existence of god. I really don't want to start another religious argument here, I was just proud of the speech and wanted to share it.

I live in southern America which is deeply Christian (people here call it the bible belt). Many people here have never heard the views and arguments that I expressed (hence my "making friends" comment). Take a listen and let me know what you think.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3233810/PersuasiveSpeech.m4a

[Unknown Target]

You spoke well. I would try not to start off by saying that I'll offend someone.

[Klaustrophobia]

I really don't want to start another religious argument here

despite your best intentions, this almost assuredly WILL happen. 

[NGTM-1R]

despite your best intentions, this almost assuredly WILL happen.

If by "religious argument" you mean "nuanced vs. unnuanced worldview"...perhaps so. We don't get many people turning out for actual religion so much as to bash the less-savory dismissals of it.

[rhraziel]

You spoke well. I would try not to start off by saying that I'll offend someone.

Good point, one of our requirements for the speech was to start out with an attention grabber. That was basically what i used as my attention grabber.

[Snail]

Usually before I do any public speaking I make a point to get a little drunk first.

[Flipside]

Usually before I do any public speaking I make a point to get a little drunk first.

"I'd just like to shay that you're all by besht mates! EVARRR!"

Seriously though, there are lots of ways of dealing with nerves, some say it's good to imagine the audience naked, though this doesn't help when you're addressing a room of attractive young women, that's just adds even more complications

Besides, I'm probably doing it already

[Luis Dias]

The speech seems a little disperse, as if you collected a lot of little arguments for your case, and bunched them up together.

However, they were spoken succintly and to the point. I'd never be able to make so many points in just 5 minutes as you did right there.

About the inevitability of the god debate, I'll behave I promise

[rhraziel]

The speech seems a little disperse, as if you collected a lot of little arguments for your case, and bunched them up together.

However, they were spoken succintly and to the point. I'd never be able to make so many points in just 5 minutes as you did right there.

About the inevitability of the god debate, I'll behave I promise

We had to keep it in between 4 and 5 minutes or else we would be docked a crazy amount of points. (that's why she asked me if I wanted a 4 minute warning). There were lots of other things that I wanted to talk about and more explanation of the things that I brought up that I just had to cut out.

[Luis Dias]

Yeah I get that. Still good summation of many classic points.

Personally I'm now somewhat more entertained and amused by the trashing of christian theology that Christopher Hitchens does in his monologues / debates you'll find on youtube, so I'll say that here if you haven't seen those yet for they are unmissable .