How anyone who has seen even one photo of the fly-covered, starving children in Somalia

Why dont animal lovers do something about these dog sled races? Have you ever witnessed a race on television? Talk about torture. Its sickening to watch the dogs, panting and their tongues hanging out, pull a heavily laden sled with a driver through snow and ice in bitter cold.

How anyone who has seen even one photo of the fly-covered, starving children in Somalia can still believe in a loving, everpresent, omnipotent God is beyond intelligent reasoning

The creationists have no right to impose their mistaken, ignorant, superstitious beliefs on others. They claim the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion. How about the rights of the majority of people who want their children taught the scientific truth about evolutionnot fallacious myths and superstitions from primitive societies.

God, guts, and guns made this great country of ours free, and you can bet your buns it will take more of the same to keep it that way. One of the very last things in this world we need is handgun control.

The insanity plea should be done away with; criminals should lose this easy way out. Killers can theoretically spend as little as six months in a mental hospital, then be released. Its time to take a stand for safety and put psychotic killers in prison.

Until now, the protest against the holocaust in our own nation has been vocal but far too small. The massacre of an unwanted generation through abortion and infanticide has sounded an alarm that should wake up every Christian. Helpless and guiltless little infants are mercilessly butchered daily in hospitals and clinics across our land. For the love of God, let us all urge the passage of the Human Life Bill, now before Congress.

The following selections were taken from the letters-to-the-editor section of a newspaper. Each can be interpreted as expressing one or more arguments. Begin by identifying the conclusion of each. Then disengage the covert assumptions, value claims, and other cognitive assertions from the emotive language and translate them into emotively neutral premises. Use the two examples in the text as models. Finally, evaluate the restructured arguments. Some may turn out to be good ones. It’s time to challenge all this nonsense about the “celebration of diversity” in our society. The more the schizophrenics preach the glories of diversity, the more we pull apart. This is not to deny appreciation of the ethnic roots, rituals, and foods, which add color to life. But to lay undue emphasis upon diversification results in destruction of the “social glue” that binds us together. Our forefathers framed one nation, indivisible. In the misguided effort to “celebrate” the uniqueness of every disparate culture and subculture, we betray our heritage and dilute our identities as Americans.

A kind and loving God surely favors the pro-choice attitude. He wants his world inhabited by happy, well-fed children with parents who love and care for them Our burgeoning population in Third World nations with constant famine and disease, and many other human miseries, could be relieved if the Catholic Church were to adjust more of its ancient policies to our current civilization.

Thousands of years of organized religion have done nothing to solve any problems and have almost always exacerbated them by promoting fear, superstition, and irrational mythologies. Kneeling in prayer to some supernatural entity seeking divine guidance or, even more implausibly, divine intervention, is not only a waste of time, it is counterproductive because it lulls the supplicant into inactivity. We must stand up, open our eyes and face lifes challenges head-on in a problem-solving approach that is reality-based, empirical, and above all, rational.

Liberalism has turned our welfare system from a social safety net into a hammock. We hand out money with few questions asked. When welfare recipients are asked for some contribution to our society in return, liberals scream that its unconstitutional. Liberalism has transformed our criminal justice system into one that cares more about the criminals past childhood problems than for the victim. Liberalism in its never-ending quest for social justice has sacrificed the rights of the majority while continuing to push the rights of a few to new limits. Liberalism has turned our school system from one of excellence to one where condoms and metal detectors are more important than prayer.

ERIC: Ive just signed up for Philosophy 502Dr. Petersons class in metaphysics. I know Im going to enjoy it because Ive always been fascinated by magic and ghosts. LEAH: Im afraid youre in for a surprise.

HAROLD: Professor Steinbeck is the most intelligent man I know. His lecture series on matter and consciousness was simply brilliant.JOYCE: Steinbeck is actually an idiot. Yesterday I watched while he tried to get his car started. When it wouldnt start, he opened the hood, and he didnt even notice that someone had stolen the battery.

THOMAS: George Foreman committed those crimes of child abuse through his own free choice. Nobody put a gun to his head. Therefore, he should be punished for them. EMILIE: Thats not true. Its been established that Foreman was severely abused himself when he was a child, and such children have an irresistible obsession to abuse others when they grow up.

ANTHONY: The sun is much smaller than the earth. You see, its just a small thing up there in the sky. Therefore, since the suns gravitational attraction is proportional to its mass, the suns gravity is less than the earths. CINDY: You are as stupid as they come. I agree the mass of the sun is less than that of the earth, but its volume is greater. Therefore, since gravitational attraction is proportional to volume, the suns gravity is greater than the earths.

MINDY: President Clinton should have been removed from office because he lied about having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. KAREN: Dont be silly. President Clinton had only oral sex with Lewinsky, and oral sex does not constitute sexual relations.

FRED: Todays professional athletes are overpaid. Many of them make millions of dollars a year. SHAWN: I dont think they are overpaid at all. Just look at the owners of some of these teams. They make ten times as much as the athletes do.

Determine whether the following disputes are verbal, factual, or some combination of the two. If verbal, discuss whether the dispute arises from vagueness or ambiguity. BRIAN: That new morning-after pill, RU-486, causes abortion. Therefore, since abortion is wrong, you should never take that pill. ELAINE: How ignorant you are! RU-486 merely prevents implantation of the fertilized ovum. Therefore, since the woman never gets pregnant, there is no abortion.

PENNY: In my mind, the use of marijuana should be legalized. After all, caffeine and alcohol are no less of a drug than marijuana, and its not illegal to enjoy a glass of beer or drink a cup of coffee. SAM: Your conclusion is way off. Beer and coffee are not drugs; theyre foods.

JERRY: In spite of the great strides technology has made in this country, poverty remains a terrible problem. Why, some people earn less than $10,000 per year. The government should do something about it. FRANKIE: I hardly think that $10,000 per year constitutes poverty. Why, in many Third World countries the majority of inhabitants earn less than $1,000 per year.

JOSEPH: Adult human beings have the right to marry whomever they please, as long as that person is not a close relative. From this it follows that gays have the right to marry someone of their own sex. STEPHEN: Your argument makes no sense. Rights are created by laws, and since there is no federal law that gives gays the right to marry, they have no such right