No, it is not. Refuting points made by the opposition is.
Ofcourse it is, if their motives are religion based, the matter has shifted from the point to the religion. The point being that they don't care about the people involved, they just don't want to invoke the wrath of the skyman plotting to condemn them in hellfire. Instead of thinking about the woman, man and the child that might be, the REAL subject. Not God or any other invisible things. I find it so immoral that they should take this in such a self-righteous way claiming they are the "good" side because the guy in the sky is with them. So if they would shift their motives, the outcome would probably be different as they might see that without God, this is about persons that don't like what they are about to do, but sometimes don't have a choice.
That is an action, not a positon.
This example was to show the different perspectives of the same action and how we form 2 positions on the same action. In this case if his motive is that he can't afford food and is dying, we sympathies with him and are likelier to allow it, but if he steals it because he think he can get away with it, we report him. " motives, 2 different positions. Motives matter.
No, what matters is whether they are right in their decisions or not. Their motive does not determine that.
Their decision is based on their motive. So how can the motive not matter? (In this case, the motive is Bible related, in general)
Further, all this motive stuff... it is utterly unsubstantiated. What kind of argument is "Oh well you're doing it because of this!"? It isn't one. It's a petty, childish, accusation. It lacks any substance. At the very least if you're going to attack someone's motives have some evidence, not simply the words of someone else who himself lacks evidence.
Again, motives do matter whan taking a stance on a matter. If people aren't motivated to do anything, they don't do it and if they do it they are motivated. So if they do anything, their motives matter. The definition of "motive" is:
something that causes a person to act in a certain way, do a certain thing, etc.; incentive. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/motive
It's what drives people to take these positions, it's what makes them think like they do. It IS what matters. The end resault is the resault of their motives.
Do you know what semantics are? Pointing out that your argument is flawed because it targets the wrong things is not semantics. In fact semantics would be more like some guy, oh I dunno who it would be, complaining about a term when it doesn't matter much. You know, a term like pro-life. Complaining about that and making silly points about how everyone is 'pro-life' is a matter of semantics.
From Wikpedia now:
Semantics (from Greek sēmantiká, neuter plural of sēmantikós)[1][2] is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata.
Yes, my arguments are semantics, itðs about the meaning of what they call themselfs and why. Which was the point of this thread. But perhaps I didn't use the right words for your reply, so I guess I'll have to call it something else. I guess over-critic would fit.
Either make a decent post or accept that you will receive criticism for a bad one. Don't whine that I should be doing something else. You can't make me do anything.
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Or you could make a decent post. I think that's the better option instead of whining that someone dared to criticize your post instead of doing what you'd prefer they do.
I like criticism in a constructive form. But yours is bitter and feels angry. Criticism is about saying here's what wrong and here's what you could do better. But you decide to just say what's wrong and how you are above it. every forum has atleast 5 persons per hour like that. Like to criticise but can't do it in a nice way.
Yes, this post could have ben written better but people got what I ment. Maybe you feel that arguing about the semantics of a word is pointless, but for me and anyone else that don't share that opinion we want to. So again, either criticise instructively or have an opinion on the matter at hand.
