{"id":191,"date":"2017-06-19T12:39:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T17:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/?p=191"},"modified":"2020-04-05T19:11:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T19:11:24","slug":"straw-dogies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/19\/straw-dogies\/","title":{"rendered":"Straw Dogies (1\/4)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;In the world shown us by Darwin, there is nothing that can be called progress. To anyone reared on humanist hopes this is intolerable. As a result, Darwin&#8217;s teaching has been stood on its head, and Christianity&#8217;s Cardinal error &#8211; that humans are different from all other animals &#8211; has been given a new lease on life<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_191_1('footnote_plugin_reference_191_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_191_1('footnote_plugin_reference_191_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_191_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_191_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> &nbsp;John Gray. <i>Straw Dogs<\/i>. 1st ed. N.p.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_191_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_191_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Gray<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this series of posts, I will attempt a critique of John Gray\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Straw Dogs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Specifically, I will be postulating that two of his arguments against humanism, though intriguing, are unfounded; and that this in turn renders his assessment of Christianity as a \u201cfailure\u201d equally unfounded. The reasons for this connection will become clearer as one reads the text and begins to see that Gray\u2019s arguments against humanism are one and the same with his supposedly solid arguments against Christianity. Ergo, as we dismantle the former, we likewise dismantle the latter.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While some of his conclusions regarding humanism are quite on point, many of his supporting proofs are greatly lacking. Specifically, his proofs regarding <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(a.)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> humans as lacking a radical separation from the animals and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(b.) <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the non-progress everywhere except internal to science. As a dogie is a calf orphaned from its mother, so too are these arguments orphaned from reason.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hope&nbsp;to show that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Straw Dogs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> fails in its dismissal of Christianity, and I will attempt to do so by means of a careful critique of two core arguments deployed in this regard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_191_1();\">References<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_191_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_191_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_191_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_191_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_191_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_191_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> &nbsp;John Gray. <i>Straw Dogs<\/i>. 1st ed. N.p.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_191_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_191_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_191_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_191_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_191_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_191_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_191_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_191_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_191_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_191_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_191_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_191_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_191_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_191_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;In the world shown us by Darwin, there is nothing that can be called progress. To anyone reared on humanist hopes this is intolerable. As a result, Darwin&#8217;s teaching has been stood on its head, and Christianity&#8217;s Cardinal error &#8211; that humans are different from all other animals &#8211; has been given a new lease [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}