A Logical Fallacy

It is entirely possible, when one is defending the truth, to use a poor argument to do it. This doesn't mean that the truth being defended is not true. It means the argument is poor. Unfortunately, a bad argument used to defend a real truth merely does damage to the credibility of the truth. I would like to address one of these bad arguments that I hear so often from Christians. Consider it a learning opportunity.

The logical fallacy is in the family of causal fallacies. We tend to mistakenly attribute cause to things that may or may not actually be the cause. The most common is the "post hoc" fallacy, short for "Post hoc ergo procter hoc". It's Latin for "After this, therefore because of this."

Here's how it goes. Event A occurs before Event B. We would then attribute the cause of Event B to Event A. However, without more than mere time as evidence, it's an improper argument. Let me give an obvious example -- an obviously bad example. "Fast food restaurants have really taken off since the 1960's. However, since they have become popular, the prison population has risen exponentially. Obviously, fast food restaurants makes people into criminals." You can see without blinking an eye that this is absolute nonsense.

So, let's see if you can see it as easily when I give you this extremely popular Christian argument. "In the early 1960's America outlawed prayer in school. Since then, morality in the United States has plummeted. Clearly the removal of school prayer has caused the decline of American morality." Yeah, I'm sure you've all heard that one. You may have used it yourself. You probably like it. Can you see that it is as wrong as my silly "fast food" example?

Now, understand, it could be that removing school prayer has damaged American morality, but simply listing it in time doesn't make the point. And, if you think about it, I'm not sure you want to argue that it did. I mean, do we believe that mandatory praying makes good people? I don't think so.

Let me offer a different theory (just for fun). On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This event precipitated a series of events that resulted in World War I. This "war to end all wars" decimated Germany. As the country slowly tried to recover from its massive wounds, a young, charismatic leader surfaced. He told them they were the master race and he would lead them to world domination. Before the end of the the 1930's, Adolf Hitler had launched his attack on Europe.

This war spread to the world, and America was soon fighting on two fronts. As a result, every able-bodied, patriotic American male joined up to defend his country. This left a unique world of an inordinate number of "single parent" families, which in turn brought about a new classification in American society -- the "teenager". Prior to World War II, you were either a child -- under the full responsibility and education of your parents -- or you were an adult, having finished being a child. But in this time of crisis, this particular class of people were too young to go to war, but too old to need direct supervision. Many of this new category of people ended up fatherless from the war, but all of them suffered years of a lack of education that being a child necessarily offers.

This generation of "teenagers" became the new parents of the 1950's. Stunted in their education, they tended to be less rigid, questioning authority more than their predecessors, less inculcated in tradition. Their children moved farther from these values and became the 60's generation, whose catch phrases included "Don't trust anyone over 30" and "Question authority". It was the generation that came from World War II that pushed prayer out of public school, and it was their offspring that enlarged this removal of God from the public square. Each subsequent generation has been a devolution of the previous one, adopting less and less of the prior values and moving ever so slowly away from America's roots in morality.

Why would I say that America had its roots in morality? First, we were started by people running from religious persecution. The Puritans are fabled for their moral values. Then, when this young nation adopted democracy, they were quite clear on the limitations. Our form of government only works when people are basically moral. When the masses determined that they could vote themselves money, it began the decline. "Entitlements" -- that's what they're called. The Puritan notion of working for the best of one's society ... that was poisoned ... sometime around 1914, I theorize.

Okay, it's a theory. Honestly, it's one of my little pet theories. It very well could be wrong. But one thing I know -- it more comprehensively addresses a far more complex question than does the answer "The elimination of school prayer has caused the moral decline of America." It is my suspicion that the elimination of school prayer was a symptom, not a cause. A nation dedicated to Christian values would have deflected that problem. Since we didn't, I have a hard time thinking that this event is the cause of American immorality. And since nations are not people, God is free to judge nations temporally. I don't think, when that day comes to America, that it will be because we eliminated school prayer. I think it goes a lot deeper than that.