From out of the (toothless) jaws of Pauljub –

Alas, I have been on a rescue mission, all to save my own verbiage.

I found an unbelievably sophomoric presentation of atheism tonight on Pauljub’s blog. (Click on the link to read it. The following will then make more sense.) When I pointed out that in his writing he had set up a straw man argument, his response indicated he had a poor understanding of the concept, so I wrote him back, as follows:

A “straw man” is a statement that is said to represent an argument of or position held by the opposition, but in fact is a phony presentation, set up simply for taking pot shots, but not truly addressing the genuine arguments. Yours is as phony as they come, and thus fallacious.

Simply put, I don’t believe you when you say that you’ve summarized “all the wisdom and statements” you’ve heard atheists make. Since you are willing to unrepentantly engage in logical fallacies, then I must be wary of your other statements, too. Until you supply the evidence, I must presume that it does not exist.

And as further evidence of your lack of trustworthiness, the flow of your conversation goes exactly as you would like it to, without even an acknowledgment that you and atheists might have actual points of disagreement. Entire libraries are filled with the arguments and counterarguments regarding the existence of God. This wimpy summary is an insult to both atheists and Christians alike. It indicates that you have, in spite of all your conversations with “thousands of atheists,” utterly failed to understand their position. It may even indicate a dismal of understanding of the Christian position.

I note that you don’t discuss the arguments that you have had the most difficulty with, but instead present things like “I have proof, but I cannot give it to you.” This doesn’t even rise to the level of entertaining conversation, much less edifying theological discourse.

But as I said, this has been a rescue mission. It’s necessary that I post this here because, in what I can only surmise was a fit of either panic or rage, he deleted it.

– {♂♂} – {♂♀} – {♀♀} -