Man of Peace

Could be the Fuhrer
Could be the local priest.
You know sometimes
Satan comes as a man of peace.

-Dylan-

You’d think this fallacy was so easy to spot that even the dumbest of us would spot it. In fact it is so apparent that you might be tempted to think that only the neurotic would refuse to spot it.

So the other day we have the Reverend A. writing in such a humble fashion to the Palm Beach Post that one would be tempted to find him a reasonable man out to find the real truth. The truth he is out to find, of course has already been assumed and his support comes from the Bible. Gay Marriage is wrong because the Bible says so. I love this kind of argument because it’s easy to refute, a kid with no background in logic could do it and so it’s a great way to show how addiction to religion poisons the mind.

You don’t have to know what Petitio Principii means, you don’t need terminology like “begging the question” you just need the kid’s reaction – Sez who?

In fact all bible based polemics from the beginning rest on a solid foundation of gullibility. As the song says “It ain’t necessarily so” and indeed it ain’t. So when are we going to get real and admit that appeals to authority, appeals to tradition, appeals to mystery, appeals to circularities or appeals to common practice or unfounded assertions are not foundations for attacks on logic and fact?

This is why I oppose any religious infiltration of public schools. I never thought the schools did much to teach people to think, but we can at least help keep them from teaching people not to think!

He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue,
He knows every song of love that ever has been sung.
Good intentions can be evil,
Both hands can be full of grease.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.

And sometimes as a writer of children’s books. As if they haven’t already plumbed the depths of decency and long since abandoned any concept or shame, now they’re writing children’s books that slime the very concept of being a Liberal to kids too young to know, but old enough to be seduced into the Republikan Jugend. I owe this one to Crankboy at the Daily Curmudgeon, even though he ruined my morning by pointing it out to me.

The Republicans are trying to molest your children. Using one of their front organizations to publish an affront to decency called Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed they are trying another Orwellian switcheroo on your kids. By once again creating a straw man called Liberal and having him do all kinds of nasty authoritarian things and calling it Liberal, they want to teach your kid that our very core principles are their enemies. Those Evil Liberals want to outlaw their religion, take away their lunch money and make them eat broccoli – because they are Liberals.

How do they get away with selling lies as entertainment to children? How do they convince anyone that children’s books are trying to make your sons gay and your daughter’s promiscuous and use that to justify this blatant assault on truth?

You knew it all along:

He could be standing next to you,
The person that you'd notice least.
I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.