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"To this day, “Sophistry” is known as the art of using bad but persuasive arguments (or, as Socrates puts it, “making the worse argument appear the better”). Sometimes this is accomplished using semantic tricks, such as equivocation." notes on The Apology
Sounds like the Sophists and the Christian fundamentalists would have gotten along thick as thieves, which they both are.
By the way, not to digress, but has anyone wondered why defenders of the Christian faith came to be called "apologists" and the art of defending Christianity came to be known as "apologetics"? Doesn't the term imply that the apologists are "apologizing" for the idiocy found in the Bible, but have to resort to using every underhanded trick in the book to explain away all the foolishness found in it? At least that's the way I read the term--a very apt term at that: "I apologize for this book we call the Holy Bible but I'm going to do my damnedest to try to convince you it's telling the truth."
Sounds like the Sophists and the Christian fundamentalists would have gotten along thick as thieves, which they both are.
By the way, not to digress, but has anyone wondered why defenders of the Christian faith came to be called "apologists" and the art of defending Christianity came to be known as "apologetics"? Doesn't the term imply that the apologists are "apologizing" for the idiocy found in the Bible, but have to resort to using every underhanded trick in the book to explain away all the foolishness found in it? At least that's the way I read the term--a very apt term at that: "I apologize for this book we call the Holy Bible but I'm going to do my damnedest to try to convince you it's telling the truth."
Well, it appeared to me that the "Christians" in the OP accusation were saying the same thing about the "Teachers" that Socrates did about the Sophists.
Actually, the defense came first, the "sorry for what I did" crept in later, words have a way of doing that over time.
"To this day, “Sophistry” is known as the art of using bad but persuasive arguments (or, as Socrates puts it, “making the worse argument appear the better”). Sometimes this is accomplished using semantic tricks, such as equivocation." notes on The Apology
Do you agree or disagree with my post?
"To this day"? That doesn't mean "in the beginning."
I trust that both assertions are true. Sophistry used to mean being wisely specialized in a specific field and then it became just being specialized, and then just teaching psychological persuasion based on semantics.
Sounds like the Sophists and the Christian fundamentalists would have gotten along thick as thieves, which they both are.
By the way, not to digress, but has anyone wondered why defenders of the Christian faith came to be called "apologists" and the art of defending Christianity came to be known as "apologetics"? Doesn't the term imply that the apologists are "apologizing" for the idiocy found in the Bible, but have to resort to using every underhanded trick in the book to explain away all the foolishness found in it? At least that's the way I read the term--a very apt term at that: "I apologize for this book we call the Holy Bible but I'm going to do my damnedest to try to convince you it's telling the truth."
Christian "apologists" didn't want to be called "militant Christians" but still wanted to be free to call atheists that spoke out "militant atheist." It's a sophist tactic of garnering sympathy... they (although a majority) aren't "attacking," they are "defending."
Christian "apologists" didn't want to be called "militant Christians" but still wanted to be free to call atheists that spoke out "militant atheist." It's a sophist tactic of garnering sympathy... they (although a majority) aren't "attacking," they are "defending."
True, but doesn't Christian "defenders of the faith" sound much more noble than Christian "apologizers for the faith"?
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and the art of defending Christianity came to be known as "apologetics"? Doesn't the term imply that the apologists are "apologizing" for the idiocy found in the Bible, but have to resort to using every underhanded trick in the book to explain away all the foolishness found in it? 
At least that's the way I read the term--a very apt term at that: "I apologize for this book we call the Holy Bible but I'm going to do my damnedest to try to convince you it's telling the truth."
