Jesus' logical fallacy when failing to wash his hands.
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Original Question
Does Jesus commit a red herring fallacy here?
"And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness."
Luke 11:37-39
Any other fallacies in that verse? Whataboutism?
Comments on Question
Answers
2Jesus historically seeks occasions to teach, and his philosophical anchor is that he understands what "God" cares about, better than others, such as Pharisees. He has biblically been known to refer to the mote in one's eye (it makes us blink) in comparison the "beam" (a large log) in the opponents' eyes. The fallacy is the idea is that perfection is the enemy of the good.
On a purely logical basis, there's no final answer imo, and we humans only approach the perfection of a circle (eg) with an infinite set of polygon lines, or use the taut line of a radius to find the reality by the analog, not the digital approximation.
I guess it is debatable whether or not this is it he context of an argument. Jesus also wasn't asked a direct question or prompted to respond to the criticism. This is akin to
"You're late!"
"Yeah? Well you're ugly."
There is no denial of the accusation; it is more of a redirection of focus. In the Jesus example, according to my interpretation of the story, Jesus is pointing out what he believes is a larger issue. "Whataboutism?" I think a good case can be made that this would fit under that label.
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Ad hominem attack?