(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see how)
Focus Question:
Why should I care about “ad hominem?”
Intro:
Hey, happy first day of autumn…the most wonderful time of the year here in the Pacific Northwest. And thank you to the several of you who reached out yesterday. I seriously cannot fully express my gratitude.
Today’s focus question is, well, less connected to the text than most — What’s that funny little Latin words “ad hominem” mean, and why should I care?” And we’ll tackle this in the Bottom Line segment at the end of our time together.
That said, in our NT segment, we’re making a turn from Jesus’ early life and ministry to a time of increasing opposition. His opposers are now starting to look for ways to get back at him, all the while today we read about two more of the eight “signs” that appear in the book of John.
New Testament segment:
Passage: John 6:1-42
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 42
Words: ~902
In our OT Segment, you will recall that the Judeans who are still in the land were fearing reprisal from Babylon over the death of the the appointed Babylonian overseer, Gedaliah, so they’re thinking about bailing out to Egypt. Jeremiah warns them not to. They not only ignored him, but they took Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch with them.
Old Testament segment:
Passage: Jeremiah 43:8-45:5
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 40
Words: ~1185
And thus ends a section of the book of Jeremiah about God’s judgment of the southern kingdom of Judah.
The bottom line:
As for today’s focus question, “What’s ‘ad hominem"?’”, you don’t need to remember what the Latin translates to…just remember the idea.
Ad hominem is short for argumentum ad hominem, which means ‘to the man.’ More importantly, it’s a fallacy of diversion, meaning a form of false argument. An ad hominem is when someone responds to an argument, not by answering the question or issue, but by attacking the person.
In a way, every parent has dealt with this — you tell your child, “Can you explain why you went outside after I told you not to?” and they respond, “You’re stupid!”
Yourlogicalfallacyis.com shares this one: “After Sally presents an eloquent and compelling case for a more equitable taxation system, Sam asks the audience whether we should believe anything from a woman who isn't married, was once arrested, and smells a bit weird.”
And we even see these in the Bible when, in Acts Peter responds, “These people are not drunk as you suppose they are…”
An ad hominem doesn’t have to be a direct attack, either — it can be a subtle inference that inference that suggests something negative about someone’s character.
This election season, of course, is a good time to be on the lookout for this kind of stuff. Sadly, on both sides of the aisle we see overt or covert character assassination going on…instead of responding to the issues.
And here’s why I bring it up. Does character matter? You bet it does. But when we are faced with less than ideal choices or have to make a choice between the lesser of evils, it’s also useful to spot ad hominem fallacies as we try to understand policies and decisions that any given candidate might make.
And it’s useful to get better at spotting ad hominem fallacies in discussions with people about the truth claims of Christianity, too. Because truth claims are just that, and often responses are ad hominem fallacies instead of legitimate discussion about the pursuit of truth.
Love you!
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
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