How to Refute a Straw Man.

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. Often, the straw man is set up to deliberately overstate the opponent's position. 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.

Its name is derived from the practice of using straw men in combat training. In such training, a scarecrow is made in the image of the enemy with the single intent of attacking it. It is occasionally called a straw dog fallacy, scarecrow argument, or wooden dummy argument.


This is a clip from CrossTV where Mark Kielar refutes Dennis Miller's straw man.

http://www.crosstv.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• strawman
• dennis
• miller
• crosstv
• tutorial
• arabic
• fps
• religion

[willo996]

Idiot!!!

[empowered65]

I have nothing against Religious people yet trying to understand a fanatic is questionable at best as the mind of a religious person is a closed loop of rhetoric

do you know about The Council of Nicaea and the Bible as perhaps you should google it...and not be so closed minded?

[UrukEngineer]

This is so fucked-up on so many levels that I don't know where to begin.

[labals]

Gospel = Ghost Spell

[TheHunterCook]

Helping your fellow man that you can prove exists > Loving a god you can't prove exists

[grimscarpious]

Bullshit. Fuck you christian.

[urbanagain]

barf

[ArtemisFunk]

so, you can be a "good" person you're whole life but will never truly be good, unless you believe in god in a certain way...hmmm, I call bullshit!!

[mulderfoxxx]

Whoa... so you are saying you have to not only believe in Yahweh and Jesus in order to truly "do good"? What the actual f*ck?!

[rebelbandman]

This video brings up a lot of valid and logical points, but you will never convert someone with this. It is condescending and patronizing. Most any person will dismiss it out of hand simply because of those facts. You can't reason someone into believing in God.