My assignment for today is to talk about a pseudo-argument. Ridiculous Rhetoric? Preposterous Paralipsis? Outrageous Oratory?Fuzzy Fustian? Prolix Persuasion? Sounds like a simple enough assignment.
I have written a total of... three (I think) papers on gay marriage. Of course, in doing the research for these papers, I've had to look up all of the opposing arguments. Often, the opposition is a little more violent than the [pro] side. Actually, almost every article I read against gay marriage cited the bible as the main source of their argument. Now, I have no direct problem with calling religion into an argument. Heck, in one of my papers, I cited a press release from a religious organization as part of my argument for gay marriage.
My issue is when people start to believe that the bible is the "end all, be all" of opinions. If the bible says it, then it's true. This is not an argument. I could come up with all the possible persuasion that I need. Data, statistics, interviews, nice little pie charts, but if the bible says it, then it's true. In the play Inherit The Wind, the man being interviewed simply refuses to even listen to the scientific evidence because the bible says that god made man. Classical rhetoric simply stops, and all logic dies.
Good bye. :)
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