Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy & Christianity

 photo Scotty1_zps07b06374.jpg
So this article has been in my head for awhile. Let me preface this by saying that I hadn't heard of the "No True Scotsman" Fallacy until recently, however, I was aware of it in practice, er usage rather. Anyway, I first heard about this fallacy from a man on a podcast I frequently listen to, he mentioned this fallacy as it applies to Christianity (in passing, the actual context was Feminism) and well long story short, here we are to disprove how The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy can't apply to Christianity. Now for the uninitiated, allow me to explain what The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy is:

PERSON A: No Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge.
PERSON B: Well, I'm a Scotsman and I put sugar in my porridge.
PERSON A: Well, no true Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge.

That's a simple rendition of The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy. The fallacy is establishing an absolute and reinforcing that absolute despite being confronted with evidence to the contrary. That's a simple definition. Now that we have it defined, let's dig in.