I am heartened to learn that you agree that if we decide to stay within the union at this referendum, and if we were later to decide to leave, we could do so without waging war against those we have so much in common.
Not sophistry at all. It is as blindingly obvious as that at some point in the future the Scots could be offered a second referendum to leave the United Kingdom.
In 1973 there was a referendum to join the Common Market. I was young at the time, but I remember it well. Since then the Common Market has morphed into the European Union, and we are being offered a second referendum to confirm or otherwise that this is the right union for us. As the EU continues to develop with an even wider range of common policy, it is perfectly credible to expect that at some stage further down the line we would be offered a further vote to confirm our membership.