A rabbi has the column featured in this article, but his rhetoric is the same as that of Xtians. He has an answer for everything, but the answers are logical fallacies in the guise of logic.
Take this question and answer:
Q: I recently came upon a quotation attributed to Khalil Gibran. It is true for anyone of faith. "Faith is a knowledge of the heart beyond the reach of proof." It is in line with your recent column titled "Reconciling one's faith with scientific facts." – R from Jupiter, Fla.
A: Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese author know best for his book “The Prophet." I agree that faith is beyond scientific proof. Faith is trust and science is knowledge. However, there is proof for faith. Our world is ordered by laws and that ordering requires an orderer. This is one of my favorite Gibran quotes: “You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.”
The laws/order of the world were not determined by an "orderer" and that they laws/order exist do not prove the existence of a creator.
The "question" isn't even an actual question, rather, an assertion. The answer, that order requires an orderer....another assumption that "orderers" must be sentient entities. You might at well call physics and chemistry twin gods and start praying to them.
Another lapse of logic (in the answer A; nowhere near logic) from the same column:
Q: My take is that God is a man-made invention, and as such everyone is free to create their own personal god and dogma to match. Let me know what you think. I am betting that I am right. – From D
A: And I am betting my life that you are wrong, dear D. If you are right, then Hitler’s theology is just as valid as Martin Luther King Jr’s, and that cannot be true.
Validity of faith is subjective. There are those who still support the argument that Hitler was right and their faith in that horrible little man is unquenching even so long long after his death.
Now I'm wondering if in a terrible dystopian future, quarter-wits will be stating the Hitler killed himself for our sins and rose from the Bunker three days later hand in hand with Eva....
My point is that good and evil are subjective dependent on the paradigms of our socialisation and amassed experiences. The gods mankind invent never stand up to scrutiny and are only vanquished when another bigger god is invented to replace them. I can only hope that the scientific method and logic become the new all powerful gods. I doubt that our species are universally smart enough at this time though.
Not that the answer A doesn't have a point, as pointed out above. Just that it is no argument against the assertion in Q.
@Gwendolyn2018 Yes but "mainstream" is only another word for "ad populum".
regarding the rabbi's logic in the service of illogic or similar, i think this sort of thing is almost a cliche applying across some rabbis and other adherents in judaism
@Gwendolyn2018
meh. i used the word "some" for good reason i think
at i see thanks
Savannah's Telfair museum has much of his art because he and Ms Telfair. Well, we word things politely here abouts.