(April 24, 2014 at 6:09 pm)Revelation777 Wrote: Hold on just one cotton pickin' minute! You guys are putting me in a no win situation here.
1. I present an argument and it is ok for everyone to quote any source they want. I use AIG and I get lambasted.
2. I put down a link with info to address an issue and I get a warning.
3. I use quotes from Darwin and other scientists and I'm quote mining and called a liar.
4. I share my beliefs and I'm called a nut and a ignoramus
5. I make a slight joke and I get raked over the coals
6. One of your atheist buddies tears me down and they get kudos and high fives
what gives?
Half of the game is the quality of the source, most of the rest is how you use or misuse the sources.
It's not what you believe. It is what you can show to be true.
A good quality source is one that propounds position that the author and those interested in critically scrutinizing the author can show to be true.
The ways to misuse the source are:
1. Cite the quality source as an authority on a topics different from that in which the source has established its reputation for quality. Darwin's reputation is in the basic mechanics of natural selection. His reputation is not in having more clue than anyone else whether god exists or not.
2. Borrow the name of an quality source to say things different from what the source actually said
3. Invoke a source that was good for its time but has since been surpassed.
4. Pick phrases, sentences and passages from a quality source in such a way that it appear to read differently, and carry a different meaning, then what the source clearly intended.
This is the rule of the game. If you can't follow it, don't play.
