Point: Sometimes during evangelistic conversations I notice various forms of the composition logical fallacies being committed. I thought this would be a good illustration to convey the point of how composition fallacies
Picture: I saw a news article that was sad, disturbing and in some sense funny. Its titled “Malaysian flag mistaken for American flag with ISIS symbols leads to Kansas lawsuit.” This is an excerpt from the article:
The Kansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Malaysian engineer, and it all started because some Americans thought the Malaysian flag was “an American flag desecrated with ISIS symbols”.
The civil advocacy organisation described it as “an act of egregious racial profiling and blatant religious discrimination”.
The Malaysian flag was used at a party at a recreational lake in the city of Wichita in Kansas last September.
The owners of the property, the Spirit Boeing Employees’ Association (SBEA), filed a complaint with the employers of engineer Munir Zanial, the Malaysian who organised the party.
They alleged that Munir and his guests were in possession of an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria flag and were conducting an ISIS meeting on SBEA property.
“On Sept 2, 2017, Mr Zanial (Munir) hosted a party to celebrate Eid-al Adhara at the SBEA Recreational Lake in Wichita, Kansas,” the ACLU said in its suit.
“Following the party, SBEA reported Mr Zanial to the Spirit Aerosystems security team based on a concern that Mr Zanial was affiliated with radical Islamic terrorism and alleged that he had used the SBEA lake to hold an ISIS meeting.
“SBEA alleged that Mr Zanial and his guests had an American flag that had been ‘desecrated by ISIS insignia’ and were wearing ‘Muslim garb’,” it said.
Munir’s own employers, Spirit Aerosystems, subsequently filed a complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
While the FBI cleared the aerospace engineer in October, 2017, SBEA, however, got a private investigator to continue looking into the incident and terminated Munir’s rental benefits.
As you can see from the picture of the Malaysian flag in this post it does look like the flag of the United States. And it has an Islamic Cresent. But that doesn’t mean its the ISIS flag!
POSSIBLE SCENARIO FOR EMPLOYING THIS ILLUSTRATION DURING APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM
OPPONENT: I don’t think Jesus is God.
CHRISTIAN: Why?
OPPONENT: Well Jesus is called Son of Man. He is a Son. He is also a Man.
CHRISTIAN: But that doesn’t mean Jesus is not God. I mean Jesus is a man. But you can’t just look at the title “Son of Man” and break it down and assume Jesus as Son of Man means He’s human and not God. You got to take the title “Son of Man” as a whole, which in its usage in the Bible is a title that is used in ways that imply Divinity.
OPPONENT: Give me an example…
CHRISTIAN: Daniel 7:13-14 is the origin of the Messianic title of the Son of Man and it states ““In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Notice this Son of Man is no ordinary man since in verse 14 it mentioned that He will rule over all the nations. Notice also in verse 14 how the Son of Man will be worshipped, showing this Son of Man must be God! Furthermore His reign will never end; not something that is ever given to a mere mortal. This idea of the Son of Man being God also is picked up in the New Testament. Jesus in Mark 2:10 tells us the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, and the Son of Man is Lord over God given Sabbath in Mark 2:28. These are the prerogative of God only!
OPPONENT: I don’t believe that because the word “Son of Man” has “Son” and “Man.”
CHRISTIAN: You are committing a composition fallacy here. Yes Jesus is human; but He’s more than Human. Also you are doing a composition fallacy with your argument. Let me give you an analogy to help illustrate why I think you are
<Give illustration >
CHRISTIAN: Do you think think the people who thought the Malaysian flag was an ISIS flag right in their reasoning?
OPPONENT: No!
That story is very interesting. Great use of the analogy to illustrate the apologetic application.
Blessings for a stunning day in paradise.
This funny anology fits well on having false assumptions. Thank you for the background info on the SON of MAN. Blessings to you and your family!
Thanks for reading this! Yeah this incident is rather funny though unfortunate too. I still remember years ago learning what the Malaysian flag looks like and being struck how it looks like the US flag. I imagine you’ve been to Malaysia before perhaps as a layover with your flights to other places?
Lankawi, Georgetown, and Kota Kinabalu are some good places I can personally recommend to visit with family.
Good illustration of the composition fallacy. That something is true of a part does not imply that it is true of the whole.
Thanks for reading this! I think this is helpful for dealing with various objections concerning Christianity such as the objection Jesus isn’t God because of merely observing the term “Son of Man,” “Son of God,” “Begotten” without seeing its larger context of its usage. Or even atheists who know some bad churches attribute this is true of churches in other parts of the world or of all churches. So many examples abound doesn’t it? If you think of more examples let me know!
Very good.
Thank you! Have a blessed week Maw Maw!
You also. In prayer.
This shows the ignorance of the American people when it comes to other nations. What a joke. What a waste of time and money. Fascinating way of incorporating “Son of Man” in this, well done!
Thanks for reading this! Now that I think of it based upon your comment a lot of conspiracy theories is like this, they breakdown various parts of symbols without context of intention of designers and make something totally different than what is meant simply from what it possibly can mean. I’m sure we both have met conspiracy theorists like that! I seen people give all kinds of wild explanation from US currencies.
🤐👍
Maybe we can all try and schedule a time to Skype if you’re up for it?!
Just let me know when and I’ll be there.
Would Saturday June 26, 2021 at 10am work for you? That’s 10 pm for me and 7 pm for Jimmy. Praise the Lord He transcends time!!
That will be great, Mandy!
Awesome!!! See you in less than 1hr brother, hope I didn’t wake you up!
Nope, you didn’t wake me up. Apparently some bike with loud speakers passed our street and beat the alarm clock for 30 minutes.
I don’t remember what time we said in the past was best for you and Kent?
At one point we were talking about Friday 7pm Jimmy time, 10 pm my time and 10am Kent’s time. If we Skype on a Friday, Nathan can join in!
Ha! Thanks for the interesting news item and the application. We live in a society where people readily make all kinds of wild extrapolations from a few facts. And the days of thorough analysis are gone as people only want two-minute sound bytes.
I feel the advent of social media doesn’t help with people wanting sound bites theology. Hope this illustration helps with slowing people down to think more carefully. How is your day? Realized both of us have been helping our sisters in different ways though your situation is more intense!
Had a pretty good R&R Monday, thanks! Mowed the backyard, had the weekly zoom call with two sisters about status of sister with dementia and her house. Then just puttering. About to resume KKK book.
How is your R&R Monday going?
I never heard of composition fallacy. But I’m sure that a lot of damaging misconceptions arise from this phenomenon. The worst, as you depict, is wrongly perceiving Jesus, the Son of God.
Thank you brother for another mind stimulating post!
Thank you Lisa for reading; how was your weekend??
Very good, just stayed local, did some shopping, cooking, strolling around. How was yours? 🙂
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This show the importance of geography as part of one’s general education
So that’s what the Malaysian flag looks like
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lol my wife is from Indonesia. I guess I’m married to a foreign terrorist and also I’m a domestic terrorist since I believe in parents right and I’m ok with that.
Society is backwards now. Criminals are cool cops are not, evil is good, God is not. Vandalism, terrorism, rioting and stealing are ok, paying your bills, being law abiding and working is not cool. They are nuts and want everyone to join them to justify their insane ways and beliefs….pure crazy!
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Very nice analogy keep up the good work.
Goes to show even in educated West people can be ignorant and have prejudicial bigotry
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