The Ad Hominem | Rapp Report 2-Minute Daily 0018 | Andrew Rappaport | SFE | Striving for Eternity

Welcome to the Rapid Bull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications.

This is a ministry of striving for eternity. One of the more common logical fallacies that you will come across and one of the more frustrating ones is called the ad hominem.

The ad hominem is Latin for to the man or to the person and this is an argument or a reaction directed against the person rather than the position that they're holding.

Many will see this as an insult that someone will make. They will refer to the person as if they're maybe an idiot or unintelligent or stupid or whatever it might be to attack the person rather than the position that is being put forth.

This can be a frustrating argument to have to deal with because it is personal in nature and we want to defend ourselves.

But the best thing to do when someone uses an ad hominem argument is, well, to thank them.

That's right, thank them. Why? Well, because when they have to resort to using an ad hominem attack, it means that they cannot defend their own position and instead of attacking your position, they're attacking you personally.

So thank them. Thank them for conceding their argument and realizing that they themselves cannot defend their own point of view and they cannot argue against your own and that's why they have to attack you and not the argument.

This may be frustrating more for them but it is a more polite way of dealing with an ad hominem logical fallacy.