(December 12, 2011 at 8:11 am)tackattack Wrote: -This historical document is accepted by a majority of people world wide and is considered the most popular book ever.[2]
argument ad populum , but you knew that.
-And I'd love to pick apart your morality argument
Great effort. I think seeing as you're taking a position opposite, you're forcing your selective bias to another view. While an interesting mental excercise, I don't think it seems genuine enough for a spirited debate when you intentionally only see the good because you're forcing yourself to (specifically "Christianity has been a great inspiration and guiding light to many millions of people on this planet world wide, but do not let that fact alone sway your judgement")
I pretty much figured I would wind up forcing myself on some things, especially the morality department.
As far as argument ad populum, I agree, and I would have not defended it if pressed. The funny thing is, even though i know it is a bad argument, and that just because many people find it to be popular and true doesnt make it so.
Yet, I will admit that arguments from popularity are powerful, regardless of wether they are correct or not, the people enforce it. Sure, this slips down to the slope of argument from authority, but I cannot deny that this religion is being enforced through popularity, therefore making it (in a sense) a significant argument for Christianity. Not a logical one. Merely a significant one.
I was also reminded during writting this opening how hard it is to defend a supernatural belief through natural arguments. how can you argue one specific god and make those arguments seem that they only adhere to that specific god and not any other?
"God is mysterious" can just as easily be used for Thor, Apollo, and all of the rest of the deities in human history. This made it quite difficult for me to only focus on one deity with all of these arguments, as damn well all of them, except arguments of popularity, can work on every single dead religion of humanity's past. I felt that adding such a popularity argument would help it seem more realistic.
