'I didn't intend to start an animated debate, and I apologize for doing
so.'
Bushwa! You should be proud of starting such an animated debate.
Don't you understand the dynamics of group creativity? If you can start an
animated debate, you will cause many new ideas to be generated and then a
consensus to be reached which will be the next stage of the advance of
human knowledge. Starting an animated debate is perhaps the third highest
thing one can accomplish in human experience.