In Mark’s gospel, Jesus comes out of nowhere to be baptized in the Jordan River. The technique wastes an opponent’s time and may cast doubt on the opponent’s debating ability for an audience unfamiliar with the technique, especially if no independent fact-checking is involved or if the audience has limited knowledge of the topics. In practice, each point raised by the “Gish galloper” takes considerably more time to refute or fact-check than it did to state in the first place.
Gish gallop example series#
During a Gish gallop, a debater confronts an opponent with a rapid series of many specious arguments, half-truths, and misrepresentations in a short space of time, which makes it impossible for the opponent to refute all of them within the format of a formal debate. It is similar to a methodology used in formal debate called spreading. The Gish gallop is a term for an eristic technique in which a debater attempts to overwhelm an opponent by excessive number of arguments, without regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments. Presently, I am replying to his article, “ Bible Blunders & Bad Theology, Part 4: The perils of comparing the gospels” (10-16-20). Madison could avoid replying to yours truly, or even see notices of my replies (er, sorry, rants, rather). John “you are an idiot!” Loftus even went to the length of changing his blog’s rules of engagement, so that he and Dr. I prefer to engage with NON-obsessive-compulsive-hysterical Christians, those who have spotted rubbish in the Bible, and might already have one foot out the door. Engaging with the ranters serves no purpose-any more than it does to engage with Flat-Earthers, Chemtrail conspiracy theorists, and those who argue that the moon landings were faked. They vent and rage at critics, like toddlers throwing tantrums when a threadbare security blanket gets tossed out. He burden of the apologist has become heavy indeed, and some don’t handle the anguish well.
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