[betty boop]

...this fragment of a paragraph in a much larger letter is a favorite target of Atheists to quote out of context....

To quote out of context is intellectually dishonest. Yet it's amazing how often this happens nowadays, and nobody seems to notice, or care.

Caveat emptor!

Sometimes I wonder whether this nasty habit is a legacy of Jacques Derrida's literary theory, deconstructionism. In that theory, the author's point of view and purpose in writing are held to be perfectly irrelevant to the meaning of the text. Thus the "text" is reduced simply to so many words on a page, and you can interpret their meaning basically any way you want to. With the author (i.e., context) out of the picture, there's nothing to stop you.

Thanks so much for writing, YHAOS! It's always such a pleasure speaking with you.

[Alamo-Girl]

Sometimes I wonder whether this nasty habit is a legacy of Jacques Derrida's literary theory, deconstructionism. In that theory, the author's point of view and purpose in writing are held to be perfectly irrelevant to the meaning of the text. Thus the "text" is reduced simply to so many words on a page, and you can interpret their meaning basically any way you want to. With the author (i.e., context) out of the picture, there's nothing to stop you.

Excellent point, dearest sister in Christ!