LOL! Yep -- these guys remind me of the kooks who say that because the paperwork wasn't quite in order back in 1803, Ohio was not properly admitted to the Union, therefore the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified, therefore the income tax is unconstitutional, and therefore the whole dadgum guvmint is illegal. (I swear I am not making this up -- people really argue this.)
So science should not be examined and criticized?
Baloney Detection Exercise 09/16/2003
Parse the following sentence, found on a bumper sticker, for logical fallacies (see our Baloney Detector for help):
“Don’t pray in my school, and I won’t think in your church.”
This slogan commits the following errors: (A) Either-Or Fallacy, (B) Glittering Generalities, (C) Ridicule, (D) Non-Sequitur, (E) All of the above.
Look below for the answer. (Emphasis mine)
.
.
.
.
.
.
Answer to Baloney Detection Exercise
Answer: (E) All of the above. The sentence falsely puts church and school in contradistinction in a couple of fallacious ways. For one, children are required to attend school, but no one is required to attend church. For another, it assumes no one thinks in church, but everyone thinks in school, which is not only another either-or fallacy, but an egregious generality as well (Does every child think in school? Does a student never pray when sweating for a final exam? Does a pastor and congregation never think about the sermon?). A third either-or fallacy pits praying and thinking against each other. Granted, many prayers are thoughtless, but Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul and the entire Bible clearly teach that prayer must be done with the mind, with alertness, not with vain repetition.
The bumper sticker also ridicules supporters of school prayer as non-thinkers who want to impose mindless religious activity on unwilling atheist students, when the issue is whether students should have the freedom to pray (as guaranteed by the First Amendment) in school as well as anywhere else. The cheap shot glosses over serious issues about the Constitutional protection of free speech and religious liberty, the ongoing secularization of our society, and whether atheism and humanism are themselves inherently religious.
Lastly, it contains an indirect non-sequitur, implying that prayer is somehow detrimental to students. It tacitly assumes that if religious people would just keep their praying hands off the school, and keep their mindless brains locked in church, both churches and schools would be better off. Does Columbine High come to mind?
This little bumper sticker exalts thinking, but is thoughtless. It goes to show how a clever slogan can bring analysis to a halt, and embed a mindless attitude into a person’s consciousness. Think (and pray) about it.
Oooh, excellent analogy!The central point of C-E Headlines is that every little stumble and bump proves mainstream [geology, astronomy, cosmology, biology, paleontology, physics, whatever] to be all a house of cards.
LOL! Yep -- these guys remind me of the kooks who say that because the paperwork wasn't quite in order back in 1803, Ohio was not properly admitted to the Union, therefore the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified, therefore the income tax is unconstitutional, and therefore the whole dadgum guvmint is illegal. (I swear I am not making this up -- people really argue this.)