A bullwhip can slice flesh from cattle, cut lizards in half, and shatter glass bottles. I like to argue the absurdity of the rule that says that whips cannot hurt armored opponents by pointing out that fists can hurt armored opponents, and so can shuriken.
I can understand that a whip should only do nonlethal damage. That's fair. But why can any other weapon hurt a creature, regardless of its armor, even if that armor's 6-inch thick dragon scale, but not whips?
By the way, Hyp, a net has no damage entry, but the rules do not specifically say that a net cannot hurt creatures. So can a flaming net hurt you on a successful hit? The rules certainly don't seem to contradict it, and if we allow a smidgen of logic to creep into our rules lawyering, wouldn't it make sense that the fire damage from a flaming weapon is not held to all the same standards as weapon's own damage?