And today's logical fallacy is... -- FawnDoo's Cavalcade of Whimsy

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Date Posted: 17:56:01 04/09/03 Wed
Author: Perceptor II
Subject: And today's logical fallacy is...
In reply to: Goktimus Prime 's message, "look! Worms!" on 00:20:46 04/08/03 Tue

Yay, let's have another religious debate! (^O^)

Does that smiley look like a little bird to anyone else?

If the Bible says, "God is love," and if Christianity teaches that all love stems from God and that God is good -- then why do some Christians argue that homosexual love is wrong?

The condensed version:
"God is love" (taken to be metaphorical).
God is good.
Therefore love is good.
Any prohibition on homosexuality is a prohibition upon homosexual love, i.e. declaring such love to be bad, which conflicts with the above.

This argument contains an equivocation fallacy, coupled with a straw man. As already discussed, the New Testament was originally written in Greek, and Greek had four different words that fit under the umbrella of the English word "love": agape, philia, storge and eros. Some quick definitions:

AGAPE: an unselfish love, love as a duty or a conscious decision without expecting reciprocation.

PHILIA: an admiration or fondness felt toward a person.

STORGE: "natural love", i.e. the love between parent and child, but can also be applied to those one simply spends a lot of time with.

EROS: the love (traditionally) between man and woman. Usually thought of as the desire for sexual intercourse, but eros also includes the romantic captivation that can consume a person.

The passage in I John 4:8, which says that "God is love", uses the word "agape". Thus the "God is good so love is good" argument only applies to that form of love.

It is also worth mentioning that forms of "philia" are used to describe things which are referred to as being wrong. There is "philarguria", the love of money, "philautos", the love of one's self (in preference to others), and "philaproteuo", the love of being first (i.e. having preeminance).

It is also worth noting that only one form of the word "eros" appears in the Bible, "Erastus", which is a proper name. The strongest statement about the "wrongness" of homosexuality is in Romans 1:27, and in that case the word "orexis" is used, which refers to an appetite, desire or lust for something.

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