appeal to authority

Appeal to Authority … is this really a fallacy?

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I’m building up to a point here about the “appeal to an authority” fallacy. What comes next is there to be used to illustrate this, so stick with me for a bit. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is the Nobel prize winning Biologist who won the Nobel prize in 2009 jointly with  Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath, “for studies … Read more

Conversion Stories … that don’t actually convince anybody of anything at all

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One common strategy that is commonly deployed to convince people to convert is to wheel out a conversion story of somebody impressive. Here is a specific example, it consists of a posting to a Facebook group yesterday … ■■ Quran wins the heart of US Professor Dr. Jeffrey Lang ■■ Dr. Jeffrey Lang is an Associate … Read more

Christian Claim: “atheism in the US has remained flat for over seven decades”

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As might be expected, in response to the latest Pew research report that highlights a huge growth of nones and the decline of belief in the US, many believers are popping up to claim that the numbers are all wrong. An example is Jerry Newcombe popping up on the Christian Post with the claim that atheism … Read more

Fallacy Zoo – Appeal To Authority

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News24 is a well-known vector for daft claims, perhaps because much of what you get there is user generated and has not been filtered. I came across an article by a chap called Kevin King that is a great example of an appeal to authority. What is that? OK, quick basic summary Person, book, etc… … Read more