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Name this fallacy: Skeptics fail to realize that ghosts only show themselves to those who believe. A skeptical outlook automatically closes the mind to the truth. That's why skeptical investigators never find evidence of ghosts.

Well, it could be cherry picking or biased sample if this guy knows of people who are ill because of smoking but discounts them because he hasn't personally seen them. Just how big of an idiot is this guy? ;) Texas sharpshooter can be tricky to set up. The bones of the fallacy is when you...

I think argument from anecdote (or personal experience) fits very well. But, let's steelman the argument. This argument can be interpreted in two ways, one being more ridiculous than the other. To be charitable, lets assume the less ridiculous version. He could be saying that if bad effects...

Arguments can have more than one fallacy for sure, but what you stated is just a tautology. It was also set up as a syllogism, which means 2 propositions. We can use logic to evaluate the truth value of propositions, but propositions just state that something is or isn't true. They are...

It looks like you are begging the question. Your conclusion is just a restatement of your premises. Although it looks like you have two premises, you actually only have one. Saying we should avoid negative impacts is the same as saying we should only have positive impacts. So the logic...

I agree with your premise. I don't agree with your conclusion. Those things do not indicate that life has no meaning, but rather that meaning dies with you like everything else. Meaning is just another part of your identity. In the same way that your preferences, your tastes for foods, your...

I'm glad you're finding it useful. Most people consider these types of subjects to be very dry and tedious. If you find yourself craving even more when you are done, try the book Thinking Fast and Slow, which will teach you about system 1 (intuitive) vs system 2 (analytical) thinking...

Try this while it lasts. http://www.bilibili.com/video/av14057393/#page=1

This is the reason I do not follow any atheist pages on Facebook. I've never found one that was anything more than trolling. Because there are many paths that can lead to atheism, and because there are no underlying tenets to unite them, atheists run the gamut from enlightened thinkers to...

Don't worry, I have not judged who you are. I've merely judged what you have said. I know it feels like pride to say that your faith in a creator is unshakable, but, as I pointed out, that's just an obscure way to say "my mind is not open to change." Having a closed mind shouldn't be a source...

Don't confuse "I think, therefore I am" with "I only am when I think." The answer is that you are all of it. You are the thinker, you are the awareness, and you are what occurs beneath the thinking and awareness. You've merely become capable of not having to do all those things together. It...

This is another way of saying that you are closed-minded. You are not willing to consider new ideas or information, in fact, you regard such things as suspicious. This is, of course, your prerogative, but it doesn't give you much credibility when you come to a conversation announce that your...

"Does it mean, if you don’t understand something, and the community of physicists don’t understand it, that means God did it? Is that how you want to play this game? Because if it is, here’s a list of things in the past that the physicists at the time didn’t understand and now we do understand...

It's a bit hard to parse what you are saying due to the lack of punctuation, so feel free to correct me if I have misunderstood. I agree with most of your summary here, but the part I've quoted sounds like a false dichotomy. While it may be true that we cannot devise a test to demonstrate that...

"I think, therefore I am" is the only thing we should accept without skepticism, because to do otherwise is not much different than non-existence. Is it us doing the thinking? We'll, yes, but the "us" is largely an illusion. But again, how else would we experience reality and gain something...

Meaning and value is applied by the brain. Different things mean different things to different brains. That doesn't diminish them though. Just because they amount to chemical reactions doesn't make them any less significant. It does, however, mean that we accept personal truths and values...

What would be an example of a metaphysical truth? The term psychopath is a label, not a diagnosis. The diagnosis would be antisocial personality disorder. Like all personality disorders, it's a spectrum. One criteria is a diminished capacity for empathy and remorse, which doesn't necessarily...

Yes, of course. I was only suggesting the alternate term for the sake of clarity. "Truth" is a word that can mean different things depending on the person and the context. "Accuracy" has less wiggle room.

Truth can be a subjective term. I prefer the term "accuracy." The ultimate decider of accuracy is nature. For example, my truth may tell me that gravity isn't real, yet if I walk off a cliff, it's natures truth that gets the final say. In fact, my feelings and opinions on gravity couldn't...