Problem: Paul writes, “One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons’” (Titus 1:12). Muslim apologists argue that this is a self-defeating statement. If all Cretans are always liars, then Epimenides (a Cretan) would also be a liar.[1] But, if this is the case, then this statement is false. One Muslim apologist argues:
“One of the interesting things is that Paul quote the Epimenides’ Paradox, specifying that the speaker himself was a Cretan. ‘Cretans are always liars…’ he then says that the man himself spoke the truth. But when the statement is spoken by a Cretan it is definitely not true. If it was true then at least once, a Cretan was not a liar, in which case the statement is false. The conclusion is the denial of the assumption, so the statement is not true. The writer Paul at least on this occasion, was without Divine Guidance for he did not discern the subtlety.”[2]
Did Paul commit a logical fallacy here?
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