A lack of logic

Have you noticed how so many people no longer think about things?  If you read old political debates, like Lincoln Douglas, you'll see that people actually reasoned about things rather than just go on their "feelings".

I was debating religion with a Protestant on Facebook. Now he's a nice guy who truly loves Jesus but his reasoning is really horrible.

He produced a quote from an early Church Father which said that something, let's call it y.  From that the Protestant inferred that the Church Father believed z.  I then produced a direct quote from the same document by the same Church Father that specifically and explicitly said that the Church Father didn't believe in z.

In a logical world a direct quote trumps a third parties interpretation any day.  But the Protestant said that well he had a quote and I had a quote so his quote was as good as mine.

Now if he'd said oops well I guess that wasn't a good example but here's one that is good I'd have no problem, the guy is getting this stuff from some Protestant web site and he personally has little to no knowledge of what the Church Fathers wrote, but when he can't recognize that a quote that says that the Church Father doesn't believe in z trumps the Protestants interpretation of a quote that does not explicitly say that the Church Father believed in z it's a sign of the death of logic.