Doesn't this comment belie your earlier one that your issue is not with his beliefs (which you took effort to emphasize by repeating it)? Is your stated princi

Doesn't this comment belie your earlier one that your issue is not with his beliefs (which you took effort to emphasize by repeating it)? Is your stated principle the one you actually stand on, or is it a more convenient justification -- we'll say that our reasons are X, because X is the most defensible/unassailable, but our actual reasoning is Y?