Family Scholar Blogger's Sneers Met with Civility and Charity

In reaction to the thorough argument in favor of the core meaning of marriage made by Robert George in, "What Is Marriage", Barry Deustch who has guest-blogged at Family Scholars Blog wrote an immature and embarrassingly inept critique. It is a wonder that he still has blogging privileges at FSB or that he got them in the first place.

See:
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Crossposted:
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/2010/12/21/what-is-bodily-union-a-response-to-what-is-marriage/

Robert George and his co-authors have invited and have responded to critiques from some notable pro-SSM scholars. Deutsch does not perform as a scholarly blogger despite his presence at FSB as a guest, however he has used FSB as a platform from which to take on the argument presented by Robert George. And his critique was dissected with philosophic and scholarly discipline combined with considerable civility and charity.

Deutsch did not engage the actual argument with intellectual and moral seriousness, the co-authors  observed. While mistakenly claiming that George's argument is a non sequitor, "Deutsch's claim against us is itself a non sequitor."

(It has been my own observation that Deutsch is in the habit of doing the very thing he imagines his opponent doing. Too often his complaints are based on misunderstanding or outright misrepresentation upon which he makes glaring errors. As in this case.)

The co-authors state the obvious about Deutsch's poor excuse for a critique:

"Ridicule is the last resort of desperate arguments. [...] A sound objection would have sufficed. But a dozen sneers do not make an objection."

Read the exchange for yourself.

See: Real Bodily Union
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/12/2277

And don't miss Deutsch's admission that he does not respect those who disagree with him on marriage and on SSM. See his comments under his blogpost at Amptoons where he crossposted with FSB.

Also note that amidst the sneers  Deutsch continues to flog the infertility strawman, which is among the favorites of the SSMer's collection of manufactured misrepresentations of the actual argument. He has been at this for years and seems unwilling to improve his understanding of the content of the disagreement.