Visionaries,
John says that when I go “nuclear” and unleash a WMD like ‘Says who?’ the only thing one can do is “slowly back away and be grateful that you weren’t completely destroyed by the strength of the opposing argument.”
This can only be understood as a facile playground response, and not an argument, if in fact the authority behind the initial claims is well known to all. But in any case, the best response would be to answer the question.
“Don’t touch that electric fence, Billy!” “Says who?” Lots of good answers could go in here. “All the best electricians,” “Mom,” “Rancher Smith,” et al. In this universe of discourse, such an appeal to limited authorities is quite legitimate and proper.
Now, when people on this forum issue sweeping and universally obligatory imperatives (denouncing racism, say, or whooping up human rights, and insisting that all are morally obligated to agree, conform, and burn candles on their altars), what is the common authority, binding on us all, that obligates us to obey? Let’s keep it simple. Check one of the following.
____ All are morally obligated to acknowledge the inviolability of human rights.
____ All are not morally obligated to acknowledge the inviolability of human rights.
Check one of the sentences above. And if someone else wants to check the other one, and you challenge him, and he says, “Says who?” a decent respect for those who know how to follow an argument should require that you answer the question. Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. It sure is — above the killing fields of Cambodia, above German concentration camps, above the abortion clinics, above the Stalinist famine in Georgia, above the Aztec pyramids covered in human blood, above the bedroom of a nine-year-old girl being molested by her mother’s boy friend — only sky.
Cordially,
Douglas Wilson
Apologetics in the Void” are repostings from an on-going electronic discussion and debate I had some time ago with members of our local community, whose names I have changed. The list serve is called Vision 20/20, and hence the name “visionaries.” Reading just these posts probably feels like listening to one half of a phone conversation, but I don’t feel at liberty to publish what others have written. But I have been editing these posts (lightly) with intelligibility in mind.