dennispedrie

Well. I’m an opinionated guy. I’m pretty conservative on social issues, liberal on economic ones. When I say liberal, I mean in the classical sense; Government, shove off. My views are in the minority on the internet, apparently. Sites like Digg.com, Slashdot, etc. I don’t even bother arguing. Other sites I’ll occasionally join in a debate. I like to think I know what I’m doing, but I’m sure not perfect. There’s a couple arguments from people who agree with me that really annoy me and which shouldn’t be used. I’ll list them, maybe talk a bit about them.

1. Christians using Christian ideas to argue with non-Christians
Stuff like “The Bible Says” and “God told us” only works if the person on the other side holds the same basic religious beliefs as you. If I went up to Jay and said abortion was wrong because God said so, what good would it do? Jay, an atheist would respond saying that he’s not a Christian and is thus not obligated to follow God’s teachings. His only authority that he recognizes is Logic and Law. Or so he would claim. And he would be perfectly justified in so saying.

In truth, it really gets on my nerves when such an argument is used. My first rule of debating is to appeal to an authority which is recognized by all interested parties. So, if I wanted to say why Abortion was wrong, I would say that it has been linked to breast cancer, or that over 40 million babies were killed, or babies are human from Day 1, or something similar. I would NOT quote a bible verse, unless the person I was addressing was a Christian themselves, who for one reason or another advocated abortion.

2. Don’t tell someone they’re going to hell.
They don’t like it, and even if you believe it, they’ll write you off as a nutjob. Unless you’re specifically debating the issue of heaven and hell, and to say otherwise would be false, don’t bring it up. If Bob tells Joe that Joe is going to hell because he hates Bush, Joe has just decided that Bob is a nut. Joe then turns up the radio and tunes Bob out.

If I think of more, there may be a part 2.