RE: Better reasons to quit Christianity
August 17, 2012 at 7:52 pm
(This post was last modified: August 17, 2012 at 7:59 pm by Lion IRC.)
(August 17, 2012 at 4:23 pm)spockrates Wrote:(August 17, 2012 at 4:18 pm)Lion IRC Wrote: Sorry spockrates.
I'll shut up now.
No need to apologize! It would be ad hominum if he said some point I was making was untrue because I was an insincere person. In this case, I think Mister A. was correct, and we both were mistaken.
Not to labor the point but calling someone a liar (by euphemism) is an ad hominem because it attacks the person not the idea.
Whether or not you are "sincere" bears no logical relevance to the discussion. In fact, your sincerity or otherwise is a completely separate proposition.
Debate topic "A" - Smoking should/shouldnt be banned
Debate topic "B" - People who thing smoking should be banned arent sincere.
In argument, we dont say..."You're a liar, youre insincere, I think thats a lie, or I think you are lying, or liar liar pants on fire, or you secretly know I'm right and refuse to admit it, blah, blah.."
Why not?
Because there's simply no need to.
If something is untrue, you demonstrate this with logic, reason, evidence NOT with accusations about how believable a person is.
In fact, whether the person stating something, (which is demonstrably untrue,) is doing so deliberately or mistakenly is formally irrelevant.
If it really WASNT an ad hominem remark, then the person making that remark is required (IMHO) to justify having made it by providing an alternative explanation for having used such a comment during the course of an intellectual discussion.
You dont get to quarantine your ad hominem atttack on your opponent behind some firewall and then claim that you werent calling them a liar to try and (illogically) discredit their case.
This is the internet. The public square. There is an audience. And the purpose of an ad hom isnt to make your opponent FEEL bad.
People would do better, if they really must call their ideological opponent a moron/loony/retard/etc. to just get on with it and stop wasting time with some protracted defence that its not really an ad hom....
- if it's true
- if it's not connected to the topic
- if you were "just kidding"
