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• For clarity, I am a biblical Christian, and moderate conservative, politically. I rely, by God's leading on the reasonable analysis of propositions and arguments and documentation from rational, reasonable, sources.

• I do not accept undocumented, conspiracy theories as fact.

• I do not think the pandemic is a hoax. For example, I do not reason that the hundreds of medical professionals I have viewed and heard from media are frauds. If the pandemic was a fraud, many of the actual health professionals would be in opposition to the fraud, such as my very fine physicians, nurses and researchers. They have local cases.

• Conspiracy theories such as this one with COVID-19 and related, mean that the powers that be would almost have or would have, hidden totalitarian power already. With the support of the police and the military they could rule the opposition.

• The pandemic is primarily a medical issue, but has sadly been politicized, especially in the United States of America.

• As an academic, I can acknowledge that there are many ways to medically and politically deal with a pandemic. These measures vary from region to region.

• I agree with Tucker Carlson, from my Canadian perspective, for the sake of democracy, the preservation and maintenance of law and order is essential, and I agree with him that there should be 'color blindness' in regards to justice. 

• I also agree with Carlson that the rioting protesters are (in my words) primarily revolutionaries and Marxists with socialists goals. Yes, many of the protesters are legitimately protesting for reform, and I have been consistently against racism in my writing. 

• I am not going to attempt to parse the numbers in regards to rioters versus peaceful protesters, across many cities in the United States of America and the world. Are there accurate numbers?

Again two key New Testament sections that guide my worldview:

• Galatians 3: 28: English Standard Version 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

• 1 Corinthians 12: 12-13 English Standard Version 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. d 1 Corinthians 12:13 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface

Interesting question...

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Slippery slope III

Courtesy J.C. Zombie: Las Vegas

Slippery slope III

Related articles

Monday, August 27, 2018: Slippery slope argument and the ridiculous conclusion that amuses my friend

Friday, August 04, 2017: The Slippery Slope: Stepping off a skyscraper 

Madsen Pirie on the slippery slope fallacy

I have discussed the slippery slope argument, considered fallacious by British, philosopher Madsen Pirie with the two links above.

The fallacy assumes that a single step in a particular direction, inevitably means that the whole distance will be covered. (189). But, the truth is, sometimes a single step leads to another and there are cases when it does not. (189). I agree with Pirie where he reasons: 'There is a limited class of cases in which someone is doomed after a first step...' Stepping off a skyscraper being a good philosophical example. (189). 

Based on the author's example: (189). If we lower the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 years of age, soon there will be a call in society for the legal drinking age to be lowered to 16 years of age. This is unlikely as in the 21st Century, the standard age of adulthood is typically 18 years of age. Therefore, it is doubtful there would be societal calls for the legal age of drinking to be below 'universal' adulthood. The fallacy fails to differentiate between far-reaching actions and limited actions. (190). The author opines that most proposals would lead to disaster if taken too far. 

My examples: 

If one smokes marijuana, it will lead to cocaine use. This is true at times, marijuana being documented as a gateway drug, but it is not always the case in every instance. As it is written it is fallacious. If one smokes marijuana, it may lead to cocaine use. Reasonable. (I have no interest in recreational drugs or in the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs.) 

I can accept that slippery slope is fallacious because a single step in a direction, does not mean that the whole distance will be covered. (189). In fact, there could be steps forward and steps backward.

Slippery slope with ridiculous example

From my 2018 entry, the sermon mentioned was stating that the modern Christian trying to be cool, ends up in a slippery slope of degrading moral thoughts, acts and actions. A Christian trying to be cool and relatable to people in the world system, drinks alcohol a bit, gets a tattoo and smokes a little marijuana and soon is hooked on drugs, alcohol and fornication. In other words, the Christian wanting to be cool, ends up living in a very similar way to the non-believer. 

To highlight Pirie's view of the slippery slope argument as fallacy, I added the satirical, humourous example. The premise being that actions described by the pastor can ultimately, in my satirical words, lead to 'orgies.' The ridiculousness of this imagined, formulaic, chain of moral thoughts, acts and actions, demonstrates the fallacious nature of the idea of the slippery slope argument. Being somewhat cool, in a social situation, may include the limited use of alcohol and most moderate drinkers do not end up alcoholics. It is not a slippery slope. It is not universal or even typical.

For balance

For balance though, philosophical and worldview trends do need to be considered. Moderation and reason is key in regards to social and political movements supported by those within the Christian Church prayerfully, desiring to be true to the scripture. This whether of the moderate left or the moderate right. 

Do advancements by the social and political left in our societies mean that Canada and the United States will eventually end up, Marxist, socialist states? No, as on this website, I agree with philosopher Pirie and reject the slippery slope argument. Some advancements where the left are involved, are actually in agreement with a New Testament worldview, such as a more focused social and political opposition to racism (Galatians 3: 28, 1 Corinthians 12: 12-13). 

But I can conclude that governments that embrace radicalized views will generally produce radicalized government. In my humble opinion, the radical left, given enough power will 'cannibalize' the moderates on the left. As the radical right, given enough power, would 'cannibalize' the moderates on the right.

(I support neither the radical left or radical right, but view a rise of the radical left, more likely in western societies, at present)

Theoretically, if the radical left becomes more mainstream, a scenario where biblical Christianity, biblical Christian institutions and biblical Christians run ethically and legally, afoul of governments, and societies because of political correctness, is reasonable and not far-fetched. New Testament sexual ethics, reasonably interpreted in scriptural context, for church members, one example.  

PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.

Courtesy J.C. Zombie

Stop sending me this

This is obviously satire and not a true likeness.

Pastor Osteen teaches a prosperity gospel, also known as health and wealth gospel. But, a full (more complete and accurate) gospel message and its 'bloody cross' and the associated positives and negatives from the biblical gospel, for humanity, are not likely as profitable to preach, today. 

I have heard Osteen preach the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is capable of preaching a basic gospel message and God's sovereignty, which are decently accurate by my Reformed standards. 

If Pastor Osteen preached biblically, far more, instead of  presenting presumptive theology assuming a prosperous, divine, 'destiny' for people, he might gain a little credibility with some critics.

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BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

CONWAY DAVID A. AND RONALD MUNSON (1997) The Elements of Reasoning, Wadsworth Publishing Company, New York.

COURSON, JON (2005) Application Commentary, Thomas Nelson, Nashville.

PAPINEAU, DAVID (Gen. Ed) (2016) Philosophy: Theories and Great Thinkers, New York, Shelter Harbour Press.

PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.

LANGER, SUSANNE K (1953)(1967) An Introduction to Symbolic Logic, Dover Publications, New York. (Philosophy). 

SAMPLES, KENNETH (2014) How to Evaluate an Abductive Argument, Reasons to Believe, Covina, California.

SZUDEK, ANDY & TORSLEY, SARAH (2018) The Little Book of Philosophy, Landau Cecile (Ed), London, DK Publishing.

WALTON, D.N. (1992) Slippery Slope Arguments, Clarendon Press.

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Slippery-Slope

Epigraph: An alternative

The Babylon Bee: August 18 2017

The cited article is satire. 

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Rather than replacing a statue, in general, I would prefer that a statue would have a written explanation, an epigraph, which would provide an attempt at an objective, historical account in regards to the subject (s) of the statue.  

But this approach requires cooler heads, more interested in truth than the reactionary, political agenda of the day. By the way, eras from now, some of our present western views may be exposed as less than good, by many. Certainly, in the culminated Kingdom of God (Revelation 20-22) this realm and world system will be condemned as being infected with problems of evil.

Theologically, keeping past statutes and allowing the public presentation of past worldviews, formerly embraced by a society, or at least, aspects of a society, demonstrates that humanity is less than perfect. I acknowledge there have been improvements in our world from previous eras in many ways. But, apart from the religious history, such as within Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, prior to the fall, humanity has been imperfect by nature in every era. History documents this as fact, despite human evolution and progress (non-Darwinian, in my view).

Humanity is universally corrupted through sin, and there has been a fall of humanity (Genesis 1-3, Romans 1-3) which greatly damages, God to human relationship and fellowship and human to human relationship and fellowship. There obviously exists racism and other human to human evils. Presently we have imperfect, tainted people and imperfect, tainted, human philosophy, theology, politics and worldview. According to scriptural revelation, this can only be ultimately fixed through the atoning and resurrection work of God incarnate, Jesus Christ, applied to persons (1 Corinthians 15).