Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: RussP; Jeff Gordon
Am I only allowed to criticize the ToE if I am not supporting ID?!

It would seem you are not allowed to criticize the ToE if you use any part of the observation of an advocate of the ToE in support of any portion of your argument. It’s apparently sufficient that one not be an approved member of the ToE brotherhood to excite their wrath (be not despairing, oh ye sisters of the order, you are included in the brotherhood with full privileges). We must believe, in fact, that no one is to be allowed to criticize the ToE under any circumstance, but such a blatant proscription is intellectually indefensible, so more subtle representations must be put forward. Hence the argument ‘out-of-context,’ which has the added virtue of being a frequently indulged transgression, thereby providing the cover of reasonableness for the accusation. This is a common phenomena. Dispute a prelate or a mullah: ‘blasphemy!’ Contradict a king or a caliph: ‘treason!’ So common, in fact, that I have long thought of it as not a religious trait, nor a political trait, nor a philosophical trait, but simply and utterly a human trait.

’Tis an ancient and oft told tale, replete with a lineup of the usual suspects: the scrambling of meanings and terms; changing the subject; ignoring the crucial question; shifting the burden; invoking the automatic disqualifier; positing a distinction possessing no difference; claiming inherited superiority; etc, etc, etc.

131 posted on 05/26/2007 9:43:08 PM PDT by YHAOS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies ]


To: YHAOS; RussP
Criticize the ToE all you wish. If your critizisms are valid and provable by experimentation then they will be accepted. The same is true of ID. If any aspect of ID can proved by experimentation then it will be accepted.

In the abscence of experimental proof science can accept nothing. Those who claim other wise just do not undersatand the scientific method.

132 posted on 05/26/2007 10:51:57 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon ("An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last." Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson