Recently I've noticed that often people who have slightly different opinions on something don't actually engage and argue properly. Rather they tend to ignore what their opposition is really saying and take the other person to be more extreme and then argues against that non-existing extreme. That's called building a straw man (i.e. someone who doesn't exist) and then killing it because you kill a point of view that doesn't really exist.
I see this most often with Christians arguing amongst themselves about theology. But also between Christians and Atheists who both make assumptions about the other that probably aren't true.
So if you do this, please stop.
Ha, yes.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I agree.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like all the evangelicals I know.
Well spotted Chris!
Wishful thinking, Chris. Actually engaging with an argument takes too much work (a person might actually have to read something!), so you're always going to have to deal with the straw man massacres.
ReplyDelete:-(
Hey Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteI assume you're the same anonymous who's been commenting on a few of my recent posts. I'd appreciate if you named yourself. I just think that's the polite thing to do.
Also, I'm a little baffled by your comment here. You say, "this sounds like all the evangelicals I know"... To me that sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. You're saying all evangelicals (esp. the ones you know) don't argue the issue but argue straw men, therefore by implication of that statement it sounds like you could very easily build the straw man that evangelicals are stupid and you (presumably not an evangelical) are much smarter and therefore more correct about your beliefs than they are.
You might not be doing that, but it sounds a lot like it to me.