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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Casting pearls before swine
Message-ID: <677@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 21:46:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.677
Posted: Tue Aug 13 21:46:51 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Aug-85 04:47:43 EDT
References: <190@gymble.UUCP> <283@aero.ARPA> <637@cybvax0.UUCP> <606@petsd.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Distribution: na
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 28

In article <606@petsd.UUCP> cjh@petsd.UUCP (Christopher J. Henrich) writes:
> In article <637@cybvax0.UUCP> mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) writes:
> >In article <283@aero.ARPA> homeier@aero.UUCP (Peter Homeier (MISD)) writes:
> >> (In the discussion of the "pearls before swine" image)
> >> [When our worse qualities are challenged, we sometimes
> >> react violently. {summary by cjh... }]
> >> 
> >> Oddly, the
> >> very vehemence with which these persons react bears witness to the 
> >> truth of what was said.  Nothing touches a nerve like the truth.
> >
> >This is one of the most pompous and laughable fallacies of religions.
> 
> In my own experience (as the swine, not as the caster of
> pearls) the confrontation with an unpleasant truth about
> myself is very painful and provoking...
> This is not a fallacy; it is an uncomfortable truth.

The fallacy is the idea that the only reason for the vehemence
confrontation with something painful that appears truthful.  There
can be any number of other causes of vehemence, such as righteous
indignation at something that appears blatantly false.

An explanation should not be accepted merely because it is plausible:
other plausible explanations may need to be eliminated first.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh