And Billo Reilly trots out the No True Scotsman fallacy

[pokerfan]

O’Reilly broke his “Impact” segment in two tonight to allow for a longer monologue on Anders Breivik, the mass murderer who butchered dozens of children in Norway, and the media’s classification of him as “Christian.” “No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder,” he clarified, calling the label “dishonest and insane.”

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-oreilly-calling-norweigian-mass-murderer-christian-is-dishonest-and-insane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

[Angry Dragon]

1. Is bill trying out a new career as a comedian??

[greyl]

2. He's never heard of Jesus' dad from the Bible? O'really? nt

[struggle4progress]

3. ... You know it has been said since ancient times: You shall not kill, and whoever kills risks

the judgment. But I say: Whosoever is angry with his brother without cause risks the judgment, and whoever speaks contemptuously to his brother risks the council, and whoever calls another a fool, risks hellfire ...
Matthew 5

Of course, nothing is more common, than the fact that people, who call themselves Christians, fail to live by the clear teachings of the religion: this is true, even of people who actually want to live up to the teachings and try to do so. If the standard, for being a Christian, were that one actually followed the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, there would be no Christians at all: everyone finds that standard impossible. On the other hand, it seems important that one should try to live by the teachings and be aware of one's failure to meet the mark

It could be possible that a Christian might actually kill many people, though I would consider that behavior inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

But it is an entirely different question whether Breivik is a "Christian" in any ordinary sense of the word. The excerpts, that I have seen from his manifesto, suggest he is a very confused man. He wants to support a "cultural" rather than a "religious" view of Christianity; to him, "Christianity" seems simply a marker for certain European traditions; he reinforces this by referencing the neo-Nazi "Christian identity" gang and again by his crypto-Nazi references to "Odinism." It requires a certain dementia to produce 1500 pages of such schlock as a prelude to gunning down dozens of kids

I have no idea what Breivik was thinking, and I doubt if I could understand it if I tried. I don't expect O'Reilly to shed much more light here than he has shed elsewhere, so I don't know why anyone here would listen to anything he says. And, of course, the "No True Scotsman" line has become somewhat stale and hackneyed

[trotsky]

4. Where ya gonna draw the line, s4p?

Murderers can't be Christians. OK.
That would certainly rule out rapists as Christians, right?
And of course thieves aren't Christians.
Which means that liars couldn't possibly be Christians.
Ultimately, no sinner could be a Christian.

So there are no Christians, and there never have been.

[struggle4progress]

5. Perhaps you didn't read what I wrote, or perhaps you just didn't understand it.

:shrug:

[trotsky]

6. Doesn't change a thing.

In fact, just makes things worse. If Breivik otherwise "tr(ied) to live by the teachings" of Jesus (whatever those are, even Christians don't agree) "and (was) aware of (his) failure to meet the mark," (by murdering several dozen people) doesn't that still mean he's a Christian?

Again I ask, where do you draw the line?

[yodermon]

10. seeing as "being Christian" is a mythical construct with no empirical way to verify

and is not falsifiable, then yes, you are correct.

Anyone can define Christianity any way one wishes, because it's Pretend.

Therefore the "no true scotsman" fallacy actually does NOT apply when Christianity is being discussed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theological_noncognitivism

[trotsky]

11. Actually, it's a textbook example of NTS then.

There is no way to say that one can't be a Christian mass murderer, so to claim that one cannot be both is to call up NTS.

[PassingFair]

7. How many people perished in that little "ark" incident?

Sounds like mass murder to me, if you believe that stuff...

[pokerfan]

8. "Do as I say, not as I do."

http://purplekoolaid.typepad.com/photos/cartoons/career1.html

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. That. Was. AWESOME!

:applause:

[MadMaddie]

12. Guess Billo conveniently forgot the rise of the KKK and the murder

and rape of blacks in this country was....wait for it..

based on White Christians justifying their hate for blacks and the reason why blacks should not receive education, voting rights, integration in the military and we could go on...

Fuck You Bill O'Leilly!!