Monday, October 01, 2007

Saint and Sinner Fires, Armstrong Dodges

Saint and Sinner has begun a critique of Armstrong's "Catholic Verses" (link)

Mr. Armstrong has found some time to respond in a limited way (link). Mr. Armstrong notes that the title of S&S's post is "The Eisegeted Verses." What is interesting is that Mr. Armstrong does not directly dispute S&S's assertion that he employs eisegesis. In fact, Mr. Armstrong in no way denies that fact.

Nor, of course, Mr. Armstrong does not address any of the nine fallacies that S&S identifies. Instead, the bulk of Mr. Armstrong's post is in comparisons to other Reformed posters (first paragraph), self-discussion and general criticism of Armstrong's critics (second paragraph), complaints about Dr. White and supposed unkind treatment of Mr. Armstrong (third paragraph), a one-paragraph summary of S&S post (fourth paragraph), a one paragraph summary of the title criticism (fifth paragraph), and an ad-hominem - suggesting that S&S is saying so because S&S is a "presuppositionalist" Calvinist and because he has read Dr. White's writings (sixth and seventh paragraphs).

After all that, a block quote summarizing S&S's list of the 9 fallacies identified in DA's writing so far is followed by a sarcastic-sounding best-wishes-hope-it-don't-blow-up-in-your-face paragraph.

After that, the remainder of the post is four paragraphs of criticizing Dr. White's rebuttal of DA's position with a lengthy block quote with color coded comments interspersed, and two paragraphs of conclusion in which DA points out that DA will ignore S&S if S&S refuses to accept DA's correction (no really: "I will tire of it if he doesn't accept correction" - with the shocking kicker "as in White's case" - as if DA had given any credible indication of being "tired" of interaction with Dr. White) and then paints S&S in colors aimed to make S&S's writings unpalatable to Dave's readers (such as Jonathan Prejean).

Keep up the good work, S&S!

-Turretinfan

6 comments:

TheoJunkie said...

Proverbs 12:16 comes to mind...

Turretinfan said...

Carrie wrote:

"This is a great summary that made me laugh. Thanks!"

(Sorry, Carrie, but your original comment was inadvertantly rejected due to the present writer's incompetance.)

I'm glad you enjoyed the summary!

-Turretinfan

Turretinfan said...

DA's comment (from his own combox):

"I should say that pretty much the only ones even trying to make arguments at this point are the lesser-known anti-Catholics (and probably a lot of younger guys) like Turretinfan, Saint and Sinner, Cory Tucholski, Peter Pike, and so forth: mostly fundamentalist Calvinists and young earthers, it seems. The arguments remain just as pathetic and weak, and I reserve the right to decide not to respond to them if their "argument" is too silly and frivolous.

With a direct critique of my book, actually dealing (however fallaciously) with my arguments, however, I will almost always respond, unless there is repeated hyper-absurdity on the level of a James Swan or Steve Hays, etc.

Man, now they will have a field day trashing these last two posts. LOLOLOL
"

Res ipsa loquitur.

Incidentally, S&S's first example verse has been posted (link).

-Turretinfan

Saint and Sinner said...

TF,

Thanks for the plug.

Peter Pike said...

Hey Turretinfan!

Now that we're being persecuted together, it's time for the Calvinist secret weapon....

MUH'CHANDYZIIIN'!!!!

Yup, we'll have to get T-shirts, coffee mugs, self-published books (I suggest self-published phone books with all the prefixes starting with 555, that way we can have both the length and the relevancy of Dave Armstrong), baseball caps, a line of greeting cards, bumperstickers, and movie posters (for the non-lesser-known anti-Catholics).

I suggest we start off with bumperstickers that read:

"You can have my lesser-known anti-catholicism when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

A T-shirt saying:

"I read through a self-aggrandizing, vitriolic-laced, invective-filled, tripe-oriented, Dave Armstrong-hyphenated blog post and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt."

A baseball cap with the cryptic: "L-K A-C"

A coffee mug stating: "Purgatory is Cor ad cor loquitur."

A movie poster with a picture of Dave Armstrong in the jungle with the caption: "Me Armstrong! You anti-Catholic!"

And a breakfast cereal of couscous called "Dave Armstrong: NOW WITH FOUR TIMES THE VOLUME AND HALF THE CONTENT*!"

*Product may be hazardous to your health. Side effects of Dave Armstrong include: difficulty in swallowing, verbal diarrhea, nausea, and depression. Do not take if you are pregnant or may become pregnant, if you are nursing, if you are breathing, sleeping, thinking, talking, or even zoning off into space. Consult with your doctor if you are tempted to buy this product. Act now, supplies are limited!

Okay not really. This is Dave Armstrong we're talking about. Supplies will definitely NOT be limited...

Turretinfan said...

Dear Mr. Pike,

Frank Turk (Centuri0n) apparently has produced a "Free Dave Armstrong" T-shirt. I'd publish the link, but I cannot remember it.

The vitriol can burn, but perhaps one of these days the truth will break through.

Who knows? Perhaps the harder he lashes out, the deeper the struggle within himself. Maybe this recent spat of harsh words is symptomatic of inner turmoil.

One thing is reasonably sure: when Armstrong was recently accused of: "[doing] a very poor job of remaining dispassionate,"

Armstrong replied: "Oh, I'm very passionate about what I believe; guilty as charged, and proudly so. I fail to see that this is a shameful thing, however. I never claimed to be engaging in "dispassionate" scholarly work, so there is a bit of license allowed a mere exegetical amateur layman like myself." (emphasis added, formatting standardized) (source)

His positions are indefensible Scripturally, analytically, or rationally (S&S is in the process of demonstrating that, as so many have done before) - where else does DA have to turn but rhetoric and emotion?

Let's keep applying the Word, and bearing testimony to the Truth. God will do the rest.

-Turretinfan