Yes but of course I'm not saying it's just one man. I'm use
these as individual examples to what I believe is a systematic
problem. The problem being unwarranted respect or consideration for
religion.
To list all the examples is simply not possible as it is so
pervasive. The unwarranted respect is the belief that religious
people are somehow more moral than the non-religious. The
unwarranted respect is the support and funding given to faith based
initiatives. The unwarranted respect is giving tax exempt status to
religious organizations.
With regards to the straw man argument, let's review the definition
from Wikipedia:
A straw man argument is an
informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's
position. To "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw man argument"
is to create a position that is easy to refute, then attribute that
position to the opponent. A straw man argument can be a successful
rhetorical technique (that is, it may succeed in persuading people)
but it is in fact a misleading fallacy, because the opponent's
actual argument has not been refuted.
First of all, it's not my fault that people of widely differing
beliefs all call themselves Christians. In that respect, there's no
such thing as 'true' Christianity, or one core set of beliefs
beyond the belief that Jesus Christ is divine and died on the cross
for the salvation of mankind. Now just because the interpretation
that I attack is not your interpretation does not by any means make
it a straw man attack because I am not misrepresenting the position
of those I am attacking.
In fact, let's say if we were to accept there is a true
Christianity, it would probably be Catholicism or the Evangelicals.
They have the historical backing or the numbers to support
them.
