Heisenberg
Well-Known Member
Well it's a quiet night, all good people are asleep and dreaming, but we atheists and skeptics can still have some fun, and practice at the same time.
One important skill to develop when defending reason and sanity is to recognize logical fallacies and other manipulative tricks. On RUI they are usually obvious, but sometimes if you are not aware of reasoning mistakes, a logical fallacy can lead to a pretty compelling argument. Some fallacies can be nuanced and confusing. Lets take a look at both the obvious and subtle mistakes we are likely to see in this forum, practice our skill and learn something at the same time.
If you feel you can identify the fallacy, please name it, describe it, and give an alternate example of when we hear it. Feel free to drop some riddles of your own, but make sure to give multiple examples.
Lets start with an easy yet common argument we see quite a bit.
1) I believe the Loch Ness monster and other sea creatures exist because the ocean and bodies of water are hard to explore, and we have only seen a fraction of what is down there.
2) We do not have any evidence of alien visitors or spacecraft, therefore aliens do not exist.
3) I believe ESP is possible because humans only use 10% of their brain. Who knows what is possible if we learn to use the entire thing.
In addition to some factual errors, all of these arguments share a common fallacy. What is it?
One important skill to develop when defending reason and sanity is to recognize logical fallacies and other manipulative tricks. On RUI they are usually obvious, but sometimes if you are not aware of reasoning mistakes, a logical fallacy can lead to a pretty compelling argument. Some fallacies can be nuanced and confusing. Lets take a look at both the obvious and subtle mistakes we are likely to see in this forum, practice our skill and learn something at the same time.
If you feel you can identify the fallacy, please name it, describe it, and give an alternate example of when we hear it. Feel free to drop some riddles of your own, but make sure to give multiple examples.
Lets start with an easy yet common argument we see quite a bit.
1) I believe the Loch Ness monster and other sea creatures exist because the ocean and bodies of water are hard to explore, and we have only seen a fraction of what is down there.
2) We do not have any evidence of alien visitors or spacecraft, therefore aliens do not exist.
3) I believe ESP is possible because humans only use 10% of their brain. Who knows what is possible if we learn to use the entire thing.
In addition to some factual errors, all of these arguments share a common fallacy. What is it?
Any good skeptic or person of reason already acknowledges that any answer we have is an approximation of the truth, with some being more accurate than others. For example, the conclusion that my cat is a male seems to be a pretty close estimate, but is subject to change given a sufficiently supported argument. The knowledge we do have is backed by evidence based reasoning which attempts to avoid fallacies and defeatist attitudes such as this one.