When we—wittingly or unwittingly—misunderstand an opposing view, it’s easy to erect a straw man. A straw man argument is when you misrepresent a view in order to refute it. A straw man is a lot easier to knock over than a real man. In the same way, a straw man argument is a lot easier to refute than the real argument.

It’s important to read books you don’t agree with. There are many reasons for doing this. For instance, it forces us to think critically. When we onlysurround ourselves with voices that are all saying the same thing, we can drift towards intellectual paralysis. It may also get us to engage new ideas we never considered before. In some cases, it may even lead us to change our minds.

These are all important reasons to read books we know we will disagree with. But the most important reason is to understand the opposing point of view. After all, a view can only be properly assessed after it is properly understood.

When we—wittingly or unwittingly—misunderstand an opposing view, it’s easy to erect a straw man. A straw man argument is when you misrepresent a view in order to refute it. A straw man is a lot easier to knock over than a real man. In the same way, a straw man argument is a lot easier to refute than the real argument.

This brings me to a book I’m currently reading titled A Manuel for Creating Atheists by atheist philosopher Peter Boghossian. This book contains a number of misrepresentations. Let me highlight just one.

Boghossian devotes an entire chapter to defining faith as well as describing its dangers. Significantly, the dangers of faith he cites directly depend on his definition. Speaking of faith, he says,

If one had sufficient evidence to warrant belief in a particular claim, then one wouldn’t believe the claim on the basis of faith. “Faith” is the word one uses when one does not have enough evidence to justify holding a belief, but when one just goes ahead and believes anyway.

On Boghossian’s view, faith is “belief without evidence” and “pretending to know things you don’t know.” In fact, he says, “As a Street Epistemologist, whenever you hear the word ‘faith,’ just translate this in your head as, ‘pretending to know things you don’t know.’” For example, if someone says, “I have faith in God,” the Street Epistemologist should understand that to mean, “I pretend to know things I don’t know about God.”

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