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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Changing the subject? Figures.

No, just pointing to the correct usage of the term false dichotomy. It is very apt for the ID vs Evo debate which is a false dichotomy, but it is not applicable to the question of what your priorities are.

695 posted on 01/29/2009 6:21:02 PM PST by LeGrande (I once heard a smart man say that you canÂ’t reason someone out of something that they didnÂ’t reaso)
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To: LeGrande
No, just pointing to the correct usage of the term false dichotomy. It is very apt for the ID vs Evo debate which is a false dichotomy, but it is not applicable to the question of what your priorities are.

Actually, it's very apt, since your original question was a crude attempt to claim that either one believes in Christianity, or one believes in freedom, with the implied assumption that the two were necessarily mutually exclusive - which makes your question a false dichotomy, since you present only two options, and further present them in a falsely opposite way.

Ironically, the term "false dichotomy" doesn't apply to ID vs. evolution since, for two reasons:

One, there are, obviously, other options besides these two - Young Earth creationism, theistic evolution (which differs somewhat from ID), and so forth. This alone rather destroys the "di-" in dichotomy for you.

Two, as most proponents of ID will readily admit, the supposed differences between evolutionism and ID, on an operational level, are not really all that different. Where they differ is in their philosophical presuppositions. While obviously introducing a distinction between the two, the term "dichotomy", which suggests the false dilemma of "either-or" would not properly apply to them.

Have any other logical fallacies that you'd like to improperly apply?

696 posted on 01/29/2009 6:29:24 PM PST by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (Nihil utile nisi quod honestum - Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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