text: You are clearly not getting this. To challenge a mistaken assertion is not to "shut down" debate, it's kind of integral to that debate. In reality, it seems as if you are the one attempting to limit debate by objecting to that challenge. Is your idea of debate a format in which you talk without interruption? Come to think of it, wasn't it you who had a habit of blocking commenters under your previous posting persona? That would be shutting down debate.
  
  Keep in mind that this "debate" bit is only in the informal, popular realm. There simply is no such debate in the scientific community. "Debate" in science exists in a rather more formal process. And as that formal debate has existed for over a century, it is really pretty much over among scientists. That would be that whole consensus thingy. You would be hard-pressed indeed to find a scientist from that "side" that you advocate so strongly for...not because they have been "ostracized", but because they have been shown to be incorrect.