This is complete and utter nonsense. I never called another person's argument cat vomit.
I believe you are appealing to semantics, here. This is what Ed said:
Ed
"Also, the universe is a diversity within a unity, which is the basic characteristic of the Triune Christian God. It is His fingerprint on the universe".
And this was your response from Post #888:
"
When my cat vomits, there is a diversity within a unity. Ergo God"?
Technically, you did not say, "your argument is cat vomit", but intellectuals tend to fancy themselves as clever and as you've pointed out, there are rules here against insulting others, so you're faced with a somewhat tricky situation. You're a clever Atheist. There are rules here about not insulting others. But you want this guy to understand just how foolish you think his argument is. He doesn't seem to be responding to normal replies so you need to turn up the volume a bit, but in a way that does not obviously come across as doing so.
I also suggested that people who engage in such clever ridicule rarely realize themselves that they are doing it. To
them, they simply think they are refuting an argument in a clever way or helping the other person to understand how foolish they are.
You're not a bad person. It was just a funny, right? This is why I suggested that you are being hard-hearted, at least in this area. It's not an insult. Don't take it personally. Really consider what I'm saying. You did not directly call Ed's argument cat vomit, but you did
compare it to cat vomit. The insult is hidden behind what appears to be a simple reply. It's like asking, "Do you still beat your wife"? Hey, it's just a question. But any sincere person can see there is an insult inherent in the question.
It's like someone saying, "Hey look at this picture I painted" and your response is, "Heh, my cat sometimes paints pictures, too; when he vomits". Technically you did not call the picture cat vomit, but the implication is still there. What do they call that...uhhh, ah! Passive aggressive.
I am suggesting that under the surface you were annoyed with Ed. You guys have had
a lot of back and forth. You yourself have complained to him about the number of times you've had to repeat yourself as you believe Ed is not listening to, not thinking about, or just plain ignoring your well-thought-out responses to him. I believe your cat vomit analogy was a bit of that frustration leaking out.
But even with someone pointing out there's something wrong with the response, you still argue tooth and nail that it's perfectly fine, that your motives were nothing but innocent, that the winky emoji was just to indicate your sarcasm. I understand. On these forums we often get the idea that any kind of mistake or weakness will reflect on our arguments. We get locked into this belief that we can never back down or admit to venting (or sometimes dumping) frustrations. It's even more difficult since you've taken the position that I need to be corrected about respect. If you were to look inside and consider that perhaps the cat vomit comparison really was a snipe at Ed, you would also appear as a hypocrite.
It's not like this is a special problem you have. All humans struggle with this. If it makes you feel any better, there are areas where I am hard-hearted, stubborn, and rebellious and I probably will be for the rest of my life. In Christianity we call these areas besetting-sins; those which present a struggle for us day after day.
I think the cat vomit thing is a pretty small issue. We all snipe at one another from time to time. What makes it a bigger problem is when we refuse to recognize it, as this tends to give us the impression that we are better than we really are. I'm quite certain I've done this many times, some of which I still remember with vivid embarrassment and probably still do without realizing.
Anyway, it feels like I'm getting a bit preachy. I better stop while I'm ahead...
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