photo #8733571

BEWARE OF STRAWMEN ARGUMENTS I make it a regular habit to block people who engage in strawmen arguments, because, at their core, such arguments are based on fallacies that should have never been brought to the table. This means that Christians often engage in DECEIT in order to make points and win arguments, and that, of course, is a blatant violation of Scripture (Jer. 48:10; Philip. 4:8; Rom. 12;17; 1:29; 3:13; Mat. 7:21-22, etc.). From day one, I have not tolerated people on social media whom I would not tolerate in person. Evil communications corrupt good manners (I Cor. 15:33), so I don't take chances. A strawman argument, for anyone who might not know, is an argument that is made against a weak position that an opponent does NOT embrace. This is done because his REAL position cannot be refuted. A strawman argument always shows weakness, deceit and cowardliness on the part of the one making the argument. For instance, if you were to say, "I would push my Jeep before I would drive a Toyota," I might reply with, "Wow, so you hate Japanese people, huh? That's not very Christ-like, you know!" I just attacked a strawman instead of facing the real statement that you made. You only stressed a dislike for Toyota vehicles, and you said nothing at all against Japan or Japanese people. For whatever reason, I didn't want to face the real issue, that there might be something wrong with Toyotas, so I quickly constructed a "strawman" (a fake issue) to oppose. To non-discerning people, that makes you appear weak and me appear strong. You wouldn't think that a Christian would engage in such malicious behavior, but they do it all the time, especially on social media. I see the strawman strategy used against myself most often with the repentance issue. Just this morning, for instance, I posted these words: "Turning to God with no desire to turn from sin is nothing but a religious lie." As usual, people began suggesting that one does not have to turn from ALL his sins to be saved and that repentance and sanctification is a process that takes time. I never said that anyone had to turn from all sin to be saved, nor did I say that sanctification didn't take time. I said that "Turning to God with NO DESIRE TO TURN FROM SIN is nothing but a religious lie." They don't want to deal with that, so they throw up their strawman. Friend, do what you want, but I advise you to stay away from people like that. They are snakes, and they will poison you, if you let them. I blocked a man a couple days ago who has been poisoned by these people, a man who used to be a fine and decent brother, but they got to him and poisoned him with their vain deceit (Col. 2:8). Now he slithers around poisoning anyone else who might be naive and weak enough to fall for his foolishness, and yes, he uses strawmen arguments. Beware of these people. They can't combat real men and real issues, so they have their own little make-believe world of strawmen, paper tigers and empty suits. If you're wise, you'll stay away from them. They aren't worthy of your time and energy. A good and honest debate is sometimes very worthwhile and helpful to many, but strawmen arguments are of the devil. Avoid them.