measure – not to be confused with ‘conflict’
a. valuable for clearly and concisely presenting truth to a rational mind
b. syllogism – a form of reasoning in which 2 statements/premises are made and a
conclusion is drawn from them...see examples on the board.
i. Major premise – premise = statement or assertion that serves as the basis of
an argument
ii. minor premise
iii. conclusion – drawn from premesis and denoted by words like, so, then,
therefore (used over 400 times in the bible);
A. a conclusion can be used as a premise in a different argument see ex.
B. 4 forms of logic
I. universal affirmative – all s is p
II. universal negative – no s is p
III. particular positive – some s is p
IV. particular negative – some s is not p
c. sequential line of reasoning: if______then_____ and since_______ then_______
i. I desperately depended on this method during periods of attack via doubt
d. several common logical fallacies:
Ad hominim – attacking one’s opponent so as to appeal to the emotion of an audience
ii. Appeal to force – something bad will happen if he does not accept the
argument an example of this is “fire and brimstone” – balance ‘gentle
as a dove’
iii. Appeal to the popular – accept a position because the majority does
LDS ‘our church is so big’- 10,000 people saying that something is true, doesn’t make it true.
iv. Appeal to tradition – accepting something because it has been held for a long time ex. Are Catholocism, Hinduism, and ‘ancient religions’
v. Begging the Question – assuming a premise to be true when it is unproven (circular reasoning) ‘Bible is true, cause God says so’
Poisoning the well – attempts to discredit a speaker by speaking
negatively of them prior to their presenting their position.
vii. Red Herring – introducing an unrelated topic that serves as a distraction
viii. Straw man argument – inaccurately representing an opposing argument
and then attempting to demolish that misrepresented argument.
