Posted by Baron Greenback [12.255.181.7 - 12-255-181-7.client.attbi.com] on 25 July 2002 at 12.32.08 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: Re: Life After Death? posted by Andy on 25 July 2002 at 11.31.54 ZuluTime:

Actually, this is more an example of trolling; while we had a perfectly good religion thread going, they decided to start up a new thread as if what they had to say was news, or somehow more important than the rest of the topic. Then, they set up their post in a way that demanded more posts be added to it.

A "strawman" is a person or being that exists only for a debate, or a dummied representation of your opponent's position that is easier to attack than anything your opponent might actually say. In other words, if I say that I heard someone say that the aliens were going to abduct you tommorow and tried to convince you to stay home based on this even though this "someone" can't be named, or in a debate on ice cream flavors, I decided that you were going to debate on how good menthol ciggarettes are because everyone that likes mint ice cream smokes menthol ciggarettes, and then attacked menthol ciggarettes as if you had been a supporter of them without you making an argument one way or another, I would be guilty of strawman fallacies, because I am attacking or using people and positions that do not exist.