CT Scan: Critical Thinking Scan
Appeals to Ignorance and Incredulity
Season 2, Episode 3
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12-Nov-2020
Claiming that something must be true because there’s no evidence to say otherwise is a logical fallacy called Appeal to Ignorance. Another version of this fallacy is the Argument from Incredulity, which suggests something must be false because it’s hard to imagine being true. Here’s how to recognize—and avoid using—both fallacies in creation-evolution contexts.
Up Next in S2: Fallacies
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The Elephant, the Blind Men, and the ...
Analogies can make arguments sound persuasive, but they can’t prove anything is true. Tips for answering analogies that argue against the Bible include finding an important difference between the things being compared and using big-picture questions to make the analogy argue for a biblical worldv...
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Answering Straw-Man Arguments
Straw-man fallacies re-frame strong positions as weak ones, while motte-and-bailey fallacies re-frame weak positions as a strong ones. In both cases, you can respond by bringing the discussion back to what the original position said.
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No True Scotsman Fallacy
No True Scotsman arguments say that no real member of some group would do something; for instance, no true scientist would reject evolution. These arguments become fallacies when they redefine a key term—like what it means to be a scientist—to avoid counterarguments. Here are some examples of how...
