Anyway, thanks for the comments and feedback, I appreciate it. I hope I didn’t take up too much of your Saturday writing a response .

Knowing our cognitive limits and natural bent to filter out non-supportive arguments, it’s so hard (at least for me) not to fall into the idea that we humans are far too flawed to ever come to accurate conclusions about truth and reality. Such a despairing attitude leaves one (me?) so skeptical of their (my?) own ideas that it becomes difficult not to resign to a type of pan-agnosticism. Even when those ideas are substantiated by several strong, objective pillars of verifiable truths.

But anyhow, interesting insights into the use of the internet as a tool for further entrenchment – had not thought of that before. I could comment on a bunch more than what I write below, but I don’t want you to have to read a tome, so I’ll limit myself:

Attacking a straw man argument, as I have understood it, is more of an attack on a misinterpreted claim than attacking a weak point. In other words, it’s a straw man not because it is weak, but because it is a rebuttal to a distortion of the original claim. The first person says thing A, then the second person ends up refuting thing B. This usually stems from misunderstanding the grounds of the other person’s view in the first place. Consider the following “conversation”:

Person 1: Abortion should not be legalized.
Person 2: It is wrong to force people to adhere to your religious views of morality. Separation of church and state.

Person 1 never mentioned their religious beliefs, so person 2 attacked a claim that was never made, a straw man. Conversations that go back and forth like that are unproductive, and can be placated by engaging on a meaningful level: asking for clarification and extrapolation of the reasons one holds a view rather than making assumptions.

So, I think we’re not to ignore weak points entirely, but to first ask the person if we understand what is actually being said. If we do have an accurate interpretation yet the weak point remains, we need to ask of ourselves if we’re being nit-pickers on an issue that really doesn’t carry much weight in the larger picture. Further, if we conclude the weak point is indeed worth bringing to light, before we open our mouths we must still ask, What is my motivation for doing so? Is it to bulldoze, belittle, rudely KNOCK down, or do we have a sincere desire to help another person see a strain of reasoning (or lack thereof) that has led to a harmful conclusion?

(By saying all of this, I really hope I’m not falling into a straw man fallacy myself, so let me know if I’ve misinterpreted anything, haha!)

*sigh* deepening the relationships in this “inescapable network of mutuality” is SUCH work.

I think you hit the nail on the head in saying that pride is the biggest obstacle to engaging in complex community. I had one of those prideful moments last week. A co-worker of mine, a young kid (younger than me, so I CAN say that ) who is always saying things of the flavor, “all religious people are brainwashed,” “upside down cross!”, and “burn churches to the ground,” came up to me and randomly started talking about the “Rose Line” and the Da Vinci Code. Usually I take these opportunities to listen and, where applicable, share truth in love. But this time my response was a terse, “Oh, you mean the one that has no basis in historical reality?” He immediately stopped talking and kind of meandered away to do something else.

At the time, I was irritated by his constant assertion that religious people are brainwashed, yet he soaked in the claims of that book as unquestioningly as he accuses others of being. Additionally, I was prideful of my own research and knowledge and too absorbed in completing the task he interrupted to take time to talk in depth. I was being a mocker and steamrolled just to shut him up. It worked, but at the cost of closing the window of communication and hurting the chance to productively converse in the future =/.

Truly, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (I Cor 8:1), and truly, I could “understand all mysteries and all knowledge…but [if I] have not love, I am nothing” (I Cor. 13:2).

Thanks again for this post, Kris; convicting and well said. I think I need to go back this week, apologize for the rude response, eventually learn his ideas on the matter, and give a thoughtful reply in humility.