No True Scotsman?

Question

No true Scotsman is a term coined by Antony Flew in his 1975 book Thinking About Thinking. It refers to an argument which takes this form:

Argument: "No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."
Reply: "But my uncle Angus likes sugar with his porridge."
Rebuttal: "Ah yes, but no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."

This form of argument is a fallacy if the predicate ("putting sugar on porridge") is not actually contradictory for the accepted definition of the subject ("Scotsman"), or if the definition of the subject is silently adjusted after the fact to make the rebuttal work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

I would like to devote this to all the "nice" Christians who insist that I never "truly" accepted Jesus in my 20-odd years of being a Christian, having a personal relationship with God, attending church three times a week, going to Bible camp every summer, going to Christian schools and college, being a Bible Quizzer, and praying every day.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070109110244AABNcqk&r=w

And a big thank you to Radagast for putting a name to the fallacy. :)

I know I'm on the right track when Godless and Zero Cool approve. :)

Answer 1

Well done.

It is also a form of the ad hominem argument (attacking the person instead of the belief).

Answer 2

Hitler wasn't Scottish, he changed into Austrian and Sam why might want to Germans say he wasn't a real German at the same time as Austrians are Germans ethnically! @ Hitler wasn't a monster purely a non-White might want to assert that...

Answer 3

so why are you so angry? you make no sense if you say you served him devotedly for 20 years, had a personal relationship with him, blah blah blah, went to church, blah blah blah. was He real to you? Did he speak to your heart? when you sinned did you repent and made better for it? I'll wager you've done all of that and it was as real to you as anything. I'll bet you've turned away because something happened in your life that hurt you deeply and so now you're angry with Him. You know He's still there. I'll say you were a real Christian but you are super POed at God so you don't need Him anymore.
If you're going to get all offended at my answer, then I'm not really very sorry. You're the one putting all this information out here for others to pick apart. No fair about it, sister.

Answer 4

I get that too. "If you're not a Christian now, you were never TRULY a Christian in the first place".

Makes me think of the "no true Scotsman" thing every time.

Answer 5

Its the same thing muslims do when they apologize for the radicals in their religion.

Answer 6

My pleasure.