First, "should/should not," "allowed/not allowed" and the like aren't going to be part of traditional logic. — Terrapin Station
Group A should not engage in topic B.
Subject X is part of Topic B.
Therefore, Group A should not engage in Subject X — marshill
Jesus was not concerned with politics
Therefore, the church should stay out of politics. — marshill
That's an incomplete argument. It is missing the premise that if Jesus is not interested in something, the church should not involve itself with it. Without that it is not possible to deduce the conclusion. And you will likely then need to demonstrate why that premise is true, many people are going to challenge it. But if that premise is true, the one that is missing, you are getting close to a valid conclusion. I don't think the missing premise is correct, but that's another story.Argument One:
Jesus was not concerned with politics
Therefore, the church should stay out of politics. — marshill
This is close to a decent argument, if the premises are correct. But there is a real problem with the verb 'stay out'. What does it mean to stay out of abortion? In a sense it can be an equivocation. Stay out of politics could mean not supporting certain candidates, not punishing candidates, as an organization, on certain issues, and so on. What does stay out of abortion mean. A priest might say something about a political issue, but be staying out of politics. is saying the bible states that abortion is wrong, being political, or is it being theological? or both? or neither? We would need a very clear definition is for what staying out of entails, and since abortion and politics are not really in the same kind of category, what does it mean in both cases. Then we could look at the argument.Argument Two:
As concluded in Argument one, the church should stay out of politics.
Abortion (or slavery, or any other moral issue) is a political issue
Therefore, the church should stay out of abortion. — marshill
Teacher: "For your final essay, you can choose any topic that belongs to Category A."
Subject X belongs to category B.
Therefore the student cannot write a paper on subject X — marshill
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