For The Bible Tells Me So
For The Bible Tells Me So
Introduction
For the Bible tells me so, is a documentary about homosexuality and religion. This film shows the suffering that some gays undergo and the suffering that some Christian families encounter when any of their family member is gay. This film tends to represent some fully legitimate concerns. Some of the concerns that are presented in the film are injustice. The abuse that homosexuals receive, and the hate that is directed towards them are unjust mostly when it is done in the name of God. It is right for the followers of Christ to show love to all people including people who are lesbians and gay. Injustice, when done in the name of Christ, tends to hurt people who are dearly loved by Christ. For the Bible tells me so is intellectually deceiving about what the Bible is saying about homosexuality. Instead of providing serious arguments concerning homosexuality from the text, the film commits several logical fallacies. This paper will aim at identifying and examining the fallacies in the film and argue why it is necessary to avoid the fallacies.
Fallacies
A fallacy is a mistake in argument or reasoning. Different types of fallacies exist with different names. One of the fallacies that can be identified in this text is the ad hominem fallacy. This is the mistake of attacking the person instead of the issue. Some of the fallacies that are evident in the documentary include ad hominem fallacy, slippery slope, misleading vividness, hasty generation, and red herringIn the ad hominem fallacy, someone tend to ignore the idea of the argument and makes a personal attack on that person who is making the argument.
Clear evidence that indicate the application of this fallacy in the documentary is when the film start attacking Paul by claiming that he is not inspired to write his words; therefore they cannot consider his words as scriptures to stand by. This is an indication that instead of the film to focus on the issue at hand, it decides to ignore the idea and then start having personal attack on the person making the argument. This is an indication that the film is trying to avoid the truth focus on attacking the abilities of the person making the argument. This fallacy need to be avoided as it appears to suggest that the argument of the person is not logic and that it needs to be avoided. It is necessary to focus on the argument and avoid personal attack so that to determine if the argument is poorly constructed.
The slippery slope is another fallacy that is evident in the film. According to this fallacy one event might lead to another event even without argument. A small event will consequently lead to a larger consequence. In the story, the daughter who committed suicide deserved compassion, but this does not mean that suicide makes homosexuality to be wrong or right. There are many people who commit suicide and the reason behind suicide might be loneliness, bankruptcy, or emotional pain. While people have compassion on this people, their suicide does not validate their actions. Therefore, it is irrelevant to say that this action leads to homosexuality being right or wrong. It is essential to avoid such fallacy so that every action can have its own purpose, but not basing it on the results of another.
Misleading vividness fallacy has been used in the film. This is a fallacy where the evidence that is given does not prove what is being argued. From the film, the claim that Jesus did not say anything about homosexuality is like saying that he did not say anything about the bestiality or incest or children sacrificing to idols. In the Bible, Jesus speaks a lot about marriages and relationships. In the Bible it is said that the creator made both male and female. Therefore, the man was to live both his father and mother and hold to his wife and become one. According to the Bible, God joined both man and woman and no one was to separate them. It is in the Bible that the issue about adultery is confronted where if a man lustfully looks at a woman, he has already committed adultery with their heart.
This indicates that Jesus said everything about homosexuality. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid using fallacies if one knows that they will not support their argument correctly with enough evidence.Hasty generation is also another fallacy that has been used in the documentary, For the Bible tells me so. Hasty generation fallacy occurs when the conclusion is formed with no enough evidence; thus, leading to an overreaction to the single occurrence. This is a fallacy where a person tends to ask people to assume a conclusion before all the facts are received. The film claims that the problem of Sodom and Gomorrah was an inhospitality issue rather than homosexuality and sexual immorality.
This conclusion that was arrived at in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah did not stand with what is said in 2nd Peter2: 6 and Jude 7. The conclusion that the documentary provide is a sign of a hasty attempt of evading the clear reality that are exposed in the passages. It is extremely clear that the problem of Sodom and Gomorrah was as a result of sexual immorality. This is the main reason as to why flames of fire were thrown on them. However, the film does not check on all facts that are evident in the Bible before it can assume the conclusion. If all facts were considered before getting to the conclusion, it would be clear that the issue with Sodom and Gomorrah was sexual immorality. This is more reason as to why fallacies need to be avoided because it tends to make people settle on a final decision that is not true. Believing that the issue was because of inhospitality is misleading since the main issue was because of sexual immorality and idolatry.
According to this documentary, it claims that Paul did not have inspiration to write the words. This is a false conclusion because there are no facts that have been provided by the film to show that he clearly did not have inspiration. On this basis, reading peter is interesting who was the most authoritative apostle who came after Jesus. Peter commends Paul in writing, in 2nd peter 3 where he states “our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom that was given to him, has written to you in all epistles, speaking these things in which are things hard to understand, that untaught and unstable people twist for their own destruction, just like they do in the rest of the scriptures.” This writing indicate that peter had respect for Paul, and he even had the humility to admit that he had learnt from him. This writing does not provide evidence of the statement that Paul was not inspired to write.
The fallacy that has been applied is the red herring. This fallacy is known as dodging the question where the response that is given to a question is irrelevant. In this fallacy, someone will tend to ignore the question and try to change premises of the argument. Therefore, there is more reason to avoid fallacies so that to ensure that the answers that are being provided to questions are relevant. Fallacies should be avoided as they do not provide the expected answers. When using fallacies people will always make sure that they want to prove their point even if it will require them to provide false evidence.
Conclusion
This documentary has totally failed to present its arguments using the Bible concerning the issue of homosexuality. It would be better if it used some other sources to base its argument on rather than using the Bible. From the fallacies that have been identified in the film, a better conclusion that can be arrived at is that, fallacies mislead, they evade the question, attack the person rather than the problem, and ridicule the seriousness of the issue. This is the more reason as to why it is necessary to avoid fallacies. When using fallacies in arguments, the argument is never logic and the conclusion that is arrived is likely to be wrong.
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