If you’re an XJW you’ve been exposed to Logical Fallacies in abundance. Yet you may have never heard of this term. What are Logical Fallacies? Why should you be familiar with them? Lets go!
Logical Fallacies are errors in reasoning. Basically, when someone makes an argument but it doesn’t make any sense it might be a logical fallacy. If you don’t agree with the argument it might be easier to see the fallacy whereas if you agree with the statement it might be harder to see the fallacy. Being aware of what Logical fallacies are helps us identify when someone uses them against us and it can also help prevent us from using them ourselves by accident.
These Logical fallacies come in many forms and an argument may employ a variety of fallacies all at once. Here we are going to discuss 5 common Logical fallacies.
- Ad Hominem Fallacy. Sometimes called a personal attack. You might have seen JWs using this and they are also used political arguments. Basically someone makes an argument and then in response someone criticizes them personally rather than criticizing the argument that was made. A good example is name calling. Calling Hillary Clinton “Killary” or calling Donald Trump “Cheeto-in-chief” are both examples of Ad Hominem attacks. You can think of Ad Hominem Fallacy as basically saying, “Oh yea? Well your ugly!”
- Straw Man Fallacy. This is a common one that JW use. Here instead of making an actual meaningful argument an individual accuses an opponent of believing something that they don’t actually believe and then attacks that belief. For example, “If evolutionist believe we came from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?” Here the assertion that “evolutionist” believe that humans evolved from monkeys is false. Scientists believe that humans and monkeys share a common monkey-like ancestor they do not believe that modern humans evolved from modern monkeys. Because of this the argument made is illogical.
- Appeal to Ignorance. This occurs when you make a definitive statement based on a lack of information. An example would be “There is no alien life in the university because we’ve never seen them.” This is false because there is a possibility that there is alien life that we just haven’t seen. Another example would be, “This chemical preservative is safe because we found no ill effects” this is a fallacy because there is the potential that there is ill effects that just haven’t been observed yet. The real danger in is fallacy is using it as the base of your entire argument.
- False Dichotomy. This fallacy occurs when you limit an argument to just two sides. An example of this might be the current, “wall” debate in the US. The false dichotomy would be that you are either pro-wall or anti-wall. But in reality people fall on a spectrum of beliefs regarding walls, fences, boarder security and do not fall into two easily divisible all or nothing groups..
- Slippery Slope. This is a classic JW fallacy. The slippery slope would be described by JW’s as Satan’s Wedge. Its the idea of claiming certainty of a future chain of events. For example by playing violent video games you will turn into a serial killer. Or the idea that if you leave the organization you are going to turn into a drug addict.
Reference: 15 Logical Fallacies You Should Know Before Getting Into a Debate by David Ferrer
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Ryan David Tuttle 