Guynemer, you're right - America is FVCKED up.

[giblets]

Not me being in that. Question was what was be before christianity in the east roman empire and you claimed it was islam. The simple idiocy of drawing islam into that question before it's invented is just stupid. Rhetorical or not.

Could you stop quoting him?

[Elok]

Called it!

[BlackCat]

Honestly, BC, it seems to me that he did mean what I thought he meant. It's still bad, because he's completely ignoring the point of what MrFun said (i.e., that saying "we were there first" is pointless, since we in turn were preceded by others, preceded by others) to turn the conversation back to Islam so his point sounds somewhat less unreasonable. His rhetorical question was phrased so ambiguously that I was actually kind of surprised to guess it right, but it WAS the least nonsensical interpretation.

Also, somebody's going to grump at you for quoting him.

While he in his twisted mind may have thought so, doesn't really mean that he should not be bashed for what he litterally claimed. I can in no way find his comment nearly rhethorical, just simply stupid. He might be on some special mushrooms or other kind of psychedelical substances, but he still needs to be bashed for them.

Yeah, I know, I deserve to be punished for quoting his stupidity

[Elok]

It was rhetorical in that he already knew the answer and was merely asking to make a point. It so happens that the point was to draw attention away from the actual point, but the question does qualify as rhetorical, at least according to most people's definition.

[BlackCat]

I could accept it as such if he hadn't had MrFun's quote - that destroyed the rhetorical in his question and made it quite explicit. Besides that, his question is simply idiotic even if you try to fit it into context.

[Ben Kenobi]

The point was to yank Mr. Fun's chain. Did the job. That it baited Blackcat too is icing on the cake.

[Barnabas]

Joseph Smith is closer to the Bahai faith than to Christianity because he created new scripture and declared himself a new prophet.
I agree with Ben in this, I don't think Mormons are Christians.

[Elok]

Oh, that's awesome. Look at this, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question :

"Is the Pope Catholic?" redirects here. For the minority view that the Pope is not Catholic, see Sedevacantism.

Anyway, I just looked it up to see if there's some other, "official" definition of an RQ. There isn't; "A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply." So what BK says does qualify. It's just a kind of silly rhetorical question.

[BlackCat]

Oh, that's awesome. Look at this, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question :

"Is the Pope Catholic?" redirects here. For the minority view that the Pope is not Catholic, see Sedevacantism.

Anyway, I just looked it up to see if there's some other, "official" definition of an RQ. There isn't; "A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply." So what BK says does qualify. It's just a kind of silly rhetorical question.

Nah, BK fails because he ask the question as a reply to a specific statement where his question isn't relevant.

[Aeson]

Wikipedia isn't a valid reference

[BlackCat]

Said in another way, rhethorical questions are only relevant if they have a relevance to the current subject/discussion. If not, you could ask if 16 yo heterosexual males gets sexually aroused by looking at naked women in any discussion. BK's question is on that level if it's asked as a rhetorical.

[Elok]

As I said, it's not a particularly good one. But it meets minimal standards.

[BlackCat]

Are you really saying that it's a valid point to throw a "rhethorical" question out of subject into a discussion ?

[Dr Strangelove]

What? Messianic Jews. I really don't see the difference between Joseph Smith and Muhammed.

Well you're going to have one heck of a time of Milt Romney wins in 2012. Obama has been rather lenient with those woh called him a muslim, but if Romeny wins and you call him a muslim? Oh man, you might be moving to Gitmo.

[Dr Strangelove]

Joseph Smith is closer to the Bahai faith than to Christianity because he created new scripture and declared himself a new prophet.
I agree with Ben in this, I don't think Mormons are Christians.

Mormons just go to show that in the US of A anything is possible.