With Due Respect: I know more than you!

Pitting one's authority over the other

You know how sometimes you feel that during a discussion you must object to something. For instance, my friend said that the Bible was "full of contradictions" (I will handle this argument in a future post).

The most natural comment that most people (in my position as a Christian) would make is , "no, it isn't."

But such a comment is not helpful to a discussion, is it? I would be pitting my authority against his/hers and the audience would decide who they would believe more based on personalities. Provided that it is an honest discussion, a much better answer would be "where?" or rather "can you list an example?"

In other words, it would be better to call someone's bluff (Sire, 2006).

Calling one's bluff

Most well-meaning people who make such statements in my experience actually know little about the issue. Let me be honest, such statements have a hint of the truth, but if we are intellectually honest, we cannot base our understandings on issues with one-word statements.

Most of the time, the questioner would decline to elaborate further (in other words, he/she was trolling or just plain trying to make me look bad). However, those who do really have geniune examples, most of them are really misunderstandings. And very rarely, they do have issues I struggle to answer. In that case, I would get their email and promise to engage them some time later.

Speaking authoritatively

I do not. In other words, I cannot claim to speak authoritately or professionally about philosophy/theology. I claim to speak more expertly on biology (since I am a biology graduate), but even then I do not claim to speak as an expert in biology. So although it may sound counter-productive, take what I write with a huge pinch of salt, because I have to be honest here.

Now you know why I try not pit my authority against others.

References

Sire, J.W. (2006) Why Good Effective Arguments Often Fail