I don't accept your premises. I said that sometimes the message and the messenger are essentially the same. My position, given that, is entirely logical.
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Brayton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 1:00 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Re: Swedish Pastor Beats "Hate Crime" Rap Newsom Michael wrote: >I agree that there is a standard. I just don't find it in the >Declaration. I find the hypocrisy of Jefferson just too much to >stomach. I can't take him seriously. And I don't. Sometimes the >messenger is the message. I'll leave it at that. > I find this highly illogical. Let's say you have Principle X. It is a principle advocated and accepted by two people, Person A and Person B. Person A advocates Principle X, but applies it in an inconsistent and even hypocritical manner. Person B advocates Principle X, but does so consistently, always putting it into practice whenever reason demands it. By your reasoning, it seems that you would say that if someone knows Person A, then Principle X is false, while if someone knows Person B, then Principle X is true. But that's not logically tenable. Principle X is either true or false, regardless of whether someone who advocates it follows it consistently or not, and certainly regardless of whether someone who's been dead for 180 years followed it consistently or not. More importantly, as Frank Beckwith pointed out, you cannot make the argument that failing to follow Principle X consistently is wrong without first accepting that Principle X is valid.You cannot logically demand that Principle X be followed consistently unless you, wittingly or unwittingly, endorse Principle X as true. Ed Brayton _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
