Friday, July 16, 2010

Romish apologetics at its best

Starting here:

Adomnan said...
Adomnan: I read the Scriptures, too; and the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit tell me that that the Catholic faith is the true faith.

Fortunately, I'm not alone.

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Rhology said...

"The Holy Spirit tells me..."

1) That's no different from the Mormon "burning in the bosom".
2) RCs like to rip Protestants for "me and my Bible under a tree", but you've here expressed the same concept.

I just think it's funny how you guys change position when the situation calls for it.
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Adomnan said...


Rhology: 1) That's no different from the Mormon "burning in the bosom".

Adomnan: The Holy Spirit supports the Magisterium. If I got a burning in the bosom, I'd take a Tums.

On the other hand, Calvin, like the Mormons, let his gut tell him what books constituted Scripture. He certainly paid no heed to the Magisterium.

Rhology: 2) RCs like to rip Protestants for "me and my Bible under a tree", but you've here expressed the same concept.

Adomnan: No, I haven't.

Rhology: I just think it's funny how you guys change position when the situation calls for it.

Adomnan: Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. 

Actually, though, I'm being consistent in this instance. It's not inconsistent to expect the Holy Spirit to endorse what the Magisterium teaches.

The Holy Spirit doesn't "speak" to me by inspiring an emotion, but through illumination of the mind. That's my experience at least.


Rhology: The astute reader will note that the reason I argued that way is b/c Paul Hoffer forced me to. Read the first few lines.

Adomnan: The astute reader might not get beyond the first few lines.

So Paul forced you to make a bad argument and repeat it a dozen times? Or was it Bush's fault?

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Rhology said...

The Holy Spirit supports the Magisterium.

You're right it does.
Wait, no it doesn't. You know what? It's both. Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.



On the other hand, Calvin, like the Mormons, let his gut tell him what books constituted Scripture.

Prove it.
Calvin WAS a Mormon. So was Jesus. Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.



It's not inconsistent to expect the Holy Spirit to endorse what the Magisterium teaches.

Actually, it's both consistent and inconsistent at the same time, in the same way.


The astute reader might not get beyond the first few lines.

Lemme guess. Astuteness is another hobgoblin of small minds.

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Adomnan said...


Rhology, I see the hobgoblin has captured your small mind.

Ever hear of Emerson, ignoramus?

I didn't think so.
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Rhology said...
I've both heard of and not heard of Emerson. My mind is simultaneously small and equal to God's.

1 comment:

Matt said...

I would humbly submit that Adomnan is actually the ignoramus, and an ignoramus whose ignorance is made worse by his arrogance.

Even if we decide to take Emerson as an authority here, Emerson is not objecting to logical consistency, but rather to consistency in the sense of an unwillingness to change one's mind, in public discourse, when corrected. Adomnan should read Harry Gensler's Formal Ethics, pp. 35-36, where he makes this point (from Emerson's own words) and takes everyone to task who tries to use Emerson to bash logic. The funny thing, of course, is that Gensler is a Catholic (a Jesuit, no less), so Adomnan should not have an issue listening to what he has to say.

But, let's suppose that Adomnan is right. I'll suppose, like Adomnan, that I do not have a small mind (what's good for the goose is good for the gander). Therefore, consistency is not a hobgoblin of my mind. Therefore, Emerson did not say that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Therefore, there is no problem seeking logical consistency. Thus, even if Adomnan is right, he has nothing to criticize you about. If he does object, that simply means that he is trying to preserve consistency, which means that his is actually the small mind.

As you can see, impugning the law of noncontradiction is an exercise in futility.