Does mansio save himself from the humiliation of being caught red-handed making an allegation he cannot support? Let's see...
1) My opinions, you call "lies", are not originally "my" opinions, but are opinions shared by most of educated people from the Western world.
Fallacy of appeal to majority. Mansio has just committed what we call
argumentum ad populum. This is not evidence that the story of the sleepers is man-made. Even
if the majority of people believed this, it still doesn't make it true. The majority of educated people in the world are also either Christian, Muslim or Hindu.
2) On an history forum for example, my "opinion" on the Seven Sleepers would be accepted without discussion.
Red herring. This is not evidence that the story of the sleepers is man-made. Mansio brought the allegation so he should bring the evidence.
3) Our Western scholarship has given us enough information to be able to distinguish between what is legendary and what is real.
Yet mansio refuses to present this so-called 'information' he allegedly posesses!
We trust that scholarship and we do not walk around with proofs in our pockets that the earth rotates around the sun or that Cinderella is an imaginary character. It is just assumed as such.
Red herring. This is not evidence that the story of the sleepers is man-made. Mansio brought the allegation so he should bring the evidence.
To give another example, I was taken aback when some of you denied that there were creation stories from clay in pagan religions. Here in the West every cultured person knows there are such stories and will not deny it. As I did not have the proofs of what everybody believes as true, why should I, it took me a while until I found texts from historians that corroborated my "opinion"
Red herring. This is not evidence that the story of the sleepers is man-made. Mansio brought the allegation so he should bring the evidence.
As an aside, all you did in the discussion of clay was produce quotes from some historians that agreed with you as opposed to bring historical evidence like that which I brought concerning the babylonian mythology where I
exposed your ignorance concerning Berosus's narrative and the missing fragments. Why have you abandoned that debate?
4) When we will have finished discussing the Seven Sleepers legend, we will have to address the legends of Alexander the Great, of Noah and the Flood, of Abraham and the Idols, of Cain's raven, of Moses and al-Khidr, of Solomon and the queen of Sheba, just to mention the most important in the Quran.
Instead of providing evidence, mansio brings up other allegations!!
5) At the moment, the only "proofs" I have that the Seven Sleepers story is man-made, is that there is no proofs that the Seven Sleepers have existed (unless you are going to give me some), and the fact that most sites call it a legend.
Argument from ignorance.. We refute this with the simple statement, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"! Mansio now wants
us to prove that the story of the sleepers is NOT man-made!!
Wrong move!
Mansio brought the allegation so HE should bring the evidence.
If mansio attempts to respond in any thread other than this one, we will challenge him to return here and continue this discussion until he recants his baseless assertion and admit that he has made claims against Islam without any evidence - something an honest person would not do.
