In one respect I plead to distance myself from professional advocates.
A lawyer or a politician is paid to exercise his passion and his persuasion
on behalf of a client or a cause in which he may not privately believe. I
have never done this and I never shall. I may not always be right, but I
care passionately about what is true and I never say anything that I do not
believe to be right. I remember being shocked when visiting a university
debating society to debate with creationists. At dinner after the debate, I
was placed next to a young woman who had made a relatively powerful
speech in favour of creationism. She clearly couldn't be a creationist, so I
asked her to tell me honestly why she had done it. She freely admitted
that she was simply practising her debating skills, and found it more
challenging to advocate a position in which she did not believe.
Apparently it is common practice in university debating societies for
speakers simply to be told on which side they are to speak. Their own
beliefs don't come into it. I had come a long way to perform the
disagreeable task of public speaking, because I believed in the truth of the
motion that I had been asked to propose. When I discovered that
members of the society were using the motion as a vehicle for playing
arguing games, I resolved to decline future invitations from debating
societies that encourage insincere advocacy on issues where scientific
truth is at stake.