There is no spiritual gift called "the gift of tongues".

[The Learner]

• The Procrustean Fallacy (also, "Keeping up Standards," Standardization, Uniformity, Fordism). The modernist fallacy of falsely and inappropriately applying the norms and requirements of standardized manufacturing. quality control and rigid scheduling, or of military discipline to inherently diverse free human beings, their lives, education, behavior, clothing and appearance. This fallacy often seems to stem from the pathological need of someone in power to place in "order" their disturbingly free, messy and disordered universe by restricting others' freedom and insisting on rigid standardization, alphabetization, discipline, uniformity and "objective" assessment of everyone under their power. This fallacy partially explains why marching in straight lines, mass calisthenics, goose-stepping, drum-and-bugle or flag corps, standing at attention, saluting, uniforms, and standardized categorization are so typical of fascism, tyrannical regimes, and of tyrants petty and grand everywhere. Thanks to author Eimar O'Duffy for identifying this fallacy!
• Prosopology (also, Prosopography, Reciting the Litany; "Tell Me, What Were Their Names?"; Reading the Roll of Martyrs): An ancient fallacy of pathos and ethos, publicly reading out loud, singing, or inscribing at length a list of names (most or all of which will be unknown to the reader or audience), sometimes in a negative sense, to underline the gravity of a past tragedy or mass-casualty event, sometimes in a positive sense, to emphasize the ancient historical continuity of a church, organization or cause. Proper names, especially if they are from the same culture or language group as the audience, can have near-mystical persuasive power. In some cases, those who use this fallacy in its contemporary form will defend it as an attempt to "personalize" an otherwise anonymous recent mass tragedy. This fallacy was virtually unknown in secular American affairs before about 100 years ago, when the custom emerged of listing of the names of local World War I casualties on community monuments around the country. That this is indeed a fallacy is evident by the fact that the names on these century-old monuments are now meaningful only to genealogists and specialized historians, just as the names on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington or the names of those who perished on 9/11 will surely be in another several generations.

 

[The Learner]

• The Red Herring (also, Distraction): An irrelevant argument, attempting to mislead and distract an audience by bringing up an unrelated but emotionally loaded issue. E.g., "In regard to my several bankruptcies and recent indictment for corruption let’s be straight up about what’s really important: Terrorism! Just look at what happened last week in [name the place]. Vote for me and I'll fight those terrorists anywhere in the world!" Also applies to raising unrelated issues as falsely opposing the issue at hand, e.g., "You say 'Black Lives Matter,' but I would rather say 'Climate Change Matters!'" when the two contentions are in no way opposed, only competing for attention. See also Availability Bias, and Dog Whistle Politics.
• Reductio ad Hitlerum (or, ad Hitleram): A highly problematic contemporary historical-revisionist contention that the argument "That's just what Hitler said (or would have said, or would have done)" is a fallacy, an instance of the Ad Hominem argument and/or Guilt by Association. Whether the Reductio ad Hitlerum can be considered an actual fallacy or not seems to fundamentally depend on one's personal view of Hitler and the gravity of his crimes.
• Reductionism: (also, Oversimplifying, Sloganeering): The fallacy of deceiving an audience by giving simple answers or bumper-sticker slogans in response to complex questions, especially when appealing to less educated or unsophisticated audiences. E.g., "If the glove doesn’t fit, you must vote to acquit." Or, "Vote for Snith. He'll bring back jobs!" In science, technology, engineering and mathematics ("STEM subjects") reductionism is intentionally practiced to make intractable problems computable, e.g., the well-known humorous suggestion, "First, let's assume the cow is a sphere!". See also, the Plain Truth Fallacy, and Dog-whistle Politics.
• Reifying (also, Mistaking the Map for the Territory): The ancient fallacy of treating imaginary intellectual categories, schemata or names as actual, material "things." (E.g., "The War against Terror is just another chapter in the eternal fight to the death between Freedom and Absolute Evil!") Sometimes also referred to as "Essentializing" or “Hypostatization.”
• The Romantic Rebel (also, the Truthdig / Truthout Fallacy; the Brave Heretic; Conspiracy theories; the Iconoclastic Fallacy): The contemporary fallacy of claiming Truth or validity for one's standpoint solely or primarily because one is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant "orthodoxy," the current Standard Model, conventional wisdom or Political Correctness, or whatever may be the Bandwagon of the moment; a corrupt argument from ethos. E.g., "Back in the day the scientific establishment thought that the world was flat, that was until Columbus proved them wrong! Now they want us to believe that ordinary water is nothing but H2O. Are you going to believe them? The government is frantically trying to suppress the truth that our public drinking-water supply actually has nitrogen in it and causes congenital vampirism! And what about Area 51? Don't you care? Or are you just a kiss-up for the corrupt scientific establishment?" The opposite of the Bandwagon fallacy.

 

[The Learner]

• Scapegoating (also, Blamecasting): The ancient fallacy that whenever something goes wrong there's always someone other than oneself to blame. Although sometimes this fallacy is a practical denial of randomness or chance itself, today it is more often a mere insurance-driven business decision ("I don't care if it was an accident! Somebody with deep pockets is gonna pay for this!"), though often scapegoating is no more than a cynical ploy to shield those truly responsible from blame. The term "Scapegoating" is also used to refer to the tactic of casting collective blame on marginalized or scorned "Others," e.g., "The Jews are to blame!" A particularly corrupt and cynical example of scapegoating is the fallacy of Blaming the Victim, in which one falsely casts the blame for one's own evil or questionable actions on those affected, e.g., "If you move an eyelash I'll have to kill you and you'll be to blame!" "If you don't bow to our demands we'll shut down the government and it'll be totally YOUR fault!" or "You bi**h, you acted flirty and made me rape you! Then you snitched on me to the cops and let them collect a rape kit on you, and now I'm going to prison and every bit of it is your fault!" See also, the Affective Fallacy.
• Scare Tactics (also Appeal to Fear; Paranoia; the Bogeyman Fallacy; Shock Doctrine [ShockDoc]; Rally 'Round the Flag; Rally 'Round the President): A variety of Playing on Emotions, a corrupted argument from pathos, taking advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered. E.g., "If you don't shut up and do what I say we're all gonna die! In this moment of crisis we can't afford the luxury of criticizing or trying to second-guess my decisions when our very lives and freedom are in peril! Instead, we need to be united as one!" Or, in the (2017) words of former White House Spokesperson Sean Spicer, "This is about the safety of America!" This fallacy is discussed at length in Naomi Klein's (2010) The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and her (2017) No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need. See also, The Shopping Hungry Fallacy, Dog-Whistle Politics, "We Have to do Something!", and The Worst Case Fallacy.
• "Scoring" (also, Moving the Ball Down the Field, the Sports World Fallacy; "Hey, Sports Fans!"): An instance of faulty analogy, the common contemporary fallacy of inappropriately and most often offensively applying sports, gaming, hunting or other recreational imagery to unrelated areas of life, such as war or intimacy. E.g., "Nope, I haven't scored with Francis yet, but last night I managed to get to third base!" or "We really need to take our ground game into Kim's half of the field if we ever expect to score against North Korea." This fallacy is almost always soaked in testosterone and machismo. An associated fallacy is that of Evening up the Score (also, Getting Even), exacting tit-for-tat vengeance as though life were some sort of "point-score" sports contest. Counter-arguments to the "Scoring" fallacy usually fall on deaf ears, since the one and only purpose for playing a game is to "score," isn't it?

 

[The Learner]

• The Scripted Message (also, Talking Points): A contemporary fallacy related to Big Lie Technique, where a politician or public figure strictly limits her/his statements on a given issue to repeating carefully scripted, often exaggerated or empty phrases developed to achieve maximum acceptance or maximum desired reaction from a target audience. See also, Dog Whistle Politics, and Political Correctness, above. The opposite of this fallacy is that of "Venting."
• Sending the Wrong Message: A dangerous fallacy of logos that attacks a given statement, argument or action, no matter how good, true or necessary, because it will "send the wrong message." In effect, those who use this fallacy are openly confessing to fraud and admitting that the truth will destroy the fragile web of illusion they have deliberately created by their lies. E.g., "Actually, we haven't a clue about how to deal with this crisis, but if we publicly admit it we'll be sending the wrong message." See also, "Mala Fides."
• Shifting the Burden of Proof: A classic fallacy of logos that challenges an opponent to disprove a claim rather than asking the person making the claim to defend his/her own argument. E.g., "These days space-aliens are everywhere among us, masquerading as true humans, even right here on campus! I dare you to prove it isn't so! See? You can't! You admit it! That means what I say has to be true. Most probably, you're one of them, since you seem to be so soft on space-aliens!" A typical tactic in using this fallacy is first to get an opponent to admit that a far-fetched claim, or some fact related to it, is indeed at least theoretically "possible," and then declare the claim "proven" absent evidence to the contrary. E.g., "So you admit that massive undetected voter fraud is indeed possible under our current system, and could have happened in this country at least in theory, and you can't produce even the tiniest scintilla of evidence that it didn't actually happen! Ha-ha! I rest my case." See also, Argument from Ignorance.
• The Shopping Hungry Fallacy: A fallacy of pathos, a variety of Playing on Emotions and sometimes Scare Tactics, making stupid but important decisions (or being prompted, manipulated or forced to "freely" take public or private decisions that may be later regretted but are difficult to reverse) "in the heat of the moment" when under the influence of strong emotion (hunger, fear, lust, anger, sadness, regret, fatigue, even joy, love or happiness). E.g., Trevor Noah, (2016) host of the Daily Show on American television attributes public approval of draconian measures in the Patriot Act and the creation of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security to America's "shopping hungry" immediately after 9/11. See also, Scare Tactics; "We Have to Do Something;" and The Big "But" Fallacy.

 

[The Learner]

• The Silent Majority Fallacy: A variety of the argument from ignorance, this fallacy, famously enunciated by disgraced American President Richard Nixon, alleges special knowledge of a hidden "silent majority" of voters (or of the population in general) that stands in support of an otherwise unpopular leader and his/her policies, contrary to the repeated findings of polls, surveys and popular vote totals. In an extreme case the leader arrogates to him/herself the title of the "Voice of the Voiceless."
• The Simpleton's Fallacy: (Or, The "Good Simpleton" Fallacy): A corrupt fallacy of logos, described in an undated quote from science writer Isaac Asimov as "The false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" The name of this fallacy is borrowed from Walter M. Miller Jr.'s classic (1960) post-apocalyptic novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz, in which in the centuries after a nuclear holocaust knowledge and learning become so despised that "Good Simpleton" becomes the standard form of interpersonal salutation. This fallacy is masterfully portrayed in the person of the title character in the 1994 Hollywood movie, "Forrest Gump." The fallacy is widely alleged to have had a great deal to do with the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election, See also "Just Plain Folks," and the "Plain Truth Fallacy." U.S. President Barrack Obama noted to the contrary (2016), "In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It's not cool to not know what you're talking about. That's not real or telling it like it is. That's not challenging political correctness. That's just not knowing what you're talking about." The term "Simpleton's Fallacy" has also been used to refer to a deceptive technique of argumentation, feigning ignorance in order to get one's opponent to admit to, explain or overexplain something s/he would rather not discuss. E.g., "I see here that you have a related prior conviction for something called 'Criminal Sodomy.' I may be a poor, naive simpleton but I'm not quite sure what that fine and fancy lawyer-talk means in plain English. Please explain to the jury in simple terms what exactly you did to get convicted of that crime." See also, Argument from Ignorance, and The Third Person Effect.
• The Slippery Slope (also, the Domino Theory): The common fallacy that "one thing inevitably leads to another." E.g., "If you two go and drink coffee together one thing will lead to another and next thing you know you'll be pregnant and end up spending your life on welfare living in the Projects," or "If we close Gitmo one thing will lead to another and before you know it armed terrorists will be strolling through our church doors with suicide belts, proud as you please, smack in the middle of the 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship service right here in Garfield, Kansas!"

 

[The Learner]

• The Snow Job (also Falacia ad Verbosium; Information Bias): A fallacy of logos, “proving” a claim by overwhelming an audience ("snowing them under") with mountains of true but marginally-relevant documents, graphs, words, facts, numbers, information and statistics that look extremely impressive but which the intended audience cannot be expected to understand or properly evaluate. This is a corrupted argument from logos. See also, "Lying with Statistics." The opposite of this fallacy is the Plain Truth Fallacy.
• The Soldiers' Honor Fallacy: The ancient fallacy that all who wore a uniform, fought hard and followed orders are worthy of some special honor or glory or are even "heroes," whether they fought for freedom or fought to defend slavery, marched under Grant or Lee, Hitler, Stalin, Eisenhower or McArthur, fought to defend their homes, fought for oil or to spread empire, or even fought against and killed U.S. soldiers! A corrupt argument from ethos (that of a soldier), closely related to the "Finish the Job" fallacy ("Sure, he died for a lie, but he deserves honor because he followed orders and did his job faithfully to the end!"). See also "Heroes All." This fallacy was recognized and decisively refuted at the Nuremburg Trials after World War II but remains powerful to this day nonetheless. See also "Blind Loyalty." Related is the State Actor Fallacy, that those who fight and die for their country (America, Russia, Iran, the Third Reich, etc.) are worthy of honor or at least pardonable while those who fight for a non-state actor (armed abolitionists, guerrillas, freedom-fighters, jihadis, mujahideen) are not and remain "terrorists" no matter how noble or vile their cause, until or unless they win and become the recognized state, or are adopted by a state after the fact.
• The Standard Version Fallacy: The ancient fallacy, a discursive Argumentum ad Baculum, of choosing a "Standard Translation" or "Authorized Version" of an ancient or sacred text and arbitrarily declaring it "correct" and "authoritative," necessarily eliminating much of the poetry and underlying meaning of the original but conveniently quashing any further discussion about the meaning of the original text, e.g., the Vulgate or The King James Version. The easily demonstrable fact that translation (beyond three or four words) is neither uniform nor reversible (i.e., never comes back exactly the same when retranslated from another language) gives the lie to any efforts to make translation of human languages into an exact science. Islam clearly recognizes this fallacy when characterizing any attempt to translate the sacred text of the Holy Qur'an out of the original Arabic as a "paraphrase" at very best. An obverse of this fallacy is the Argumentum ad Mysteriam, above. An extension of the Standard Version Fallacy is the Monolingual Fallacy, at an academic level the fallacy of ignorantly assuming (as a monolingual person) that transparent, in-depth translation between languages is the norm, or even possible at all, allowing one to conveniently and falsely ignore everyday issues of translation when close-reading translated literature or academic text and theory. At the popular level the Monolingual Fallacy allows monolinguals to blithely demand that visitors, migrants, refugees and newcomers learn English, either before arriving or else overnight after arrival in the United States, while applying no such demand to themselves when they go to Asia, Europe, Latin America, or even French-speaking areas of Canada. Not rarely, this fallacy descends into gross racism or ethnic discrimination, e.g., the demagogy of warning of "Spanish being spoken right here on Main Street and taco trucks on every corner!" See also, Othering, and Dog-Whistle Politics.

 

[The Learner]

• Star Power (also Testimonial, Questionable Authority, Faulty Use of Authority, Falacia ad Vericundiam; Eminence-based Practice): In academia and medicine, a corrupt argument from ethos in which arguments, standpoints and themes of professional discourse are granted fame and validity or condemned to obscurity solely by whoever may be the reigning "stars" or "premier journals" of the profession or discipline at the moment. E.g., "Foster's take on Network Theory has been thoroughly criticized and is so last-week!.This week everyone's into Safe Spaces and Pierce's Theory of Microaggressions. Get with the program." (See also, the Bandwagon.) Also applies to an obsession with journal Impact Factors. At the popular level this fallacy also refers to a corrupt argument from ethos in which public support for a standpoint or product is established by a well-known or respected figure (i.e.,. a star athlete or entertainer) who is not an expert and who may have been well paid to make the endorsement (e.g., “Olympic gold-medal pole-vaulter Fulano de Tal uses Quick Flush Internet--Shouldn’t you?" Or, "My favorite rock star warns that vaccinations spread cooties, so I'm not vaccinating my kids!" ). Includes other false, meaningless or paid means of associating oneself or one’s product or standpoint with the ethos of a famous person or event (e.g., “Try Salsa Cabria, the official taco sauce of the Winter Olympics!”). This fallacy also covers Faulty use of Quotes (also, The Devil Quotes Scripture), including quoting out of context or against the clear intent of the original speaker or author. E.g., racists quoting and twisting the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s statements in favor of racial equality against contemporary activists and movements for racial equality.
• The Straw Man (also "The Straw Person" ""The Straw Figure"): The fallacy of setting up a phony, weak, extreme or ridiculous parody of an opponent's argument and then proceeding to knock it down or reduce it to absurdity with a rhetorical wave of the hand. E.g., "Vegetarians say animals have feelings like you and me. Ever seen a cow laugh at a Shakespeare comedy? Vegetarianism is nonsense!" Or, "Pro-choicers hate babies and want to kill them!" Or, "Pro-lifers hate women and want them to spend their lives barefoot, pregnant and chained to the kitchen stove!" A too-common example of this fallacy is that of highlighting the most absurd, offensive, silly or violent examples in a mass movement or demonstration, e.g. "Tree huggers" for environmentalists, "bra burners" for feminists, or "rioters" when there are a dozen violent crazies in a peaceful, disciplined demonstration of thousands or tens of thousands, and then falsely portraying these extreme examples as typical of the entire movement in order to condemn it with a wave of the hand. See also Olfactory Rhetoric.
• The Taboo (also, Dogmatism):: The ancient fallacy of unilaterally declaring certain "bedrock" arguments, assumptions, dogmas, standpoints or actions "sacrosanct" and not open to discussion, or arbitrarily taking some emotional tones, logical standpoints, doctrines or options "off the table" beforehand. (E.g., " "No, let's not discuss my sexuality," "Don't bring my drinking into this," or "Before we start, you need to know I won't allow you to play the race card or permit you to attack my arguments by claiming 'That's just what Hitler would say!'") Also applies to discounting or rejecting certain arguments, facts and evidence (or even experiences!) out of hand because they are supposedly "against the Bible" or other sacred dogma (See also the A Priori Argument). This fallacy occasionally degenerates into a separate, distracting argument over who gets to define the parameters, tones, dogmas and taboos of the main argument, though at this point reasoned discourse most often breaks down and the entire affair becomes a naked Argumentum ad Baculum. See also, MYOB, Tone Policing, and Calling "Cards."
• They're All Crooks: The common contemporary fallacy of refusing to get involved in public politics because "all" politicians and politics are allegedly corrupt, ignoring the fact that if this is so in a democratic country it is precisely because decent people like you and I refuse to get involved, leaving the field open to the "crooks" by default. An example of Circular Reasoning. Related to this fallacy is "They're All Biased," the extremely common contemporary cynical fallacy of ignoring news and news media because none tells the "objective truth" and all push some "agenda." This basically true observation logically requiring audiences to regularly view or read a variety of media sources in order to get any approximation of reality, but for many younger people today (2017) it means in practice, "Ignore news, news media and public affairs altogether and instead pay attention to something that's fun, exciting or personally interesting to you." The sinister implication for democracy is, "Mind your own business and leave all the 'big' questions to your betters, those whose job is to deal with these questions and who are well paid to do so." See also the Third Person Effect, and Deliberate Ignorance.
• The "Third Person Effect" (also, "Wise up!" and "They're All Liars"): An example of the fallacy of Deliberate Ignorance, the arch-cynical postmodern fallacy of deliberately discounting or ignoring media information a priori, opting to remain in ignorance rather than "listening to the lies" of the mainstream media, the President, the "medical establishment," professionals, professors, doctors and the "academic elite" or other authorities or information sources, even about urgent subjects (e.g., the need for vaccinations) on which these sources are otherwise publicly considered to be generally reliable or relatively trustworthy. According to Drexel University researchers (2017), the "Third Person Effect ... suggests that individuals will perceive a mass media message to have more influence on others, than themselves. This perception tends to counteract the message's intended 'call-to-action.' Basically, this suggests that over time people wised up to the fact that some mass media messages were intended to manipulate them -- so the messages became less and less effective." This fallacy seems to be opposite to and an overreaction to the Big Lie Technique. See also, Deliberate Ignorance, the Simpleton's Fallacy, and Trust your Gut.

 

[The Learner]

Trust your Gut (also, Trust your Heart; Trust Your Feelings; Trust your Intuition; Trust your Instincts; Emotional Reasoning): A corrupt argument from pathos, the ancient fallacy of relying primarily on "gut feelings" rather than reason or evidence to make decisions. A recent (2017) Ohio State University study finds, unsurprisingly, that people who "trust their gut" are significantly more susceptible to falling for "fake news," phony conspiracy theories, frauds and scams than those who insist on hard evidence or logic. See also Deliberate Ignorance, the Affective Fallacy, and The "Third Person Effect."


Two-sides Fallacy (also, Teach the Controversy): The presentation of an issue that makes it seem to have two sides of equal weight or significance, when in fact a consensus or much stronger argument supports just one side. Also called “false balance” or “false equivalence.” (Thanks to Teaching Tolerance for this definition!) E.g,. "Scientists theorize that the Earth is a sphere, but there are always two sides to any argument: Others believe that the Earth is flat and is perched on the back of a giant turtle, and a truly balanced presentation of the issue requires teaching both explanations without bias or unduly favoring either side over the other."

Two Truths (also, Compartmentalization; Epistemically Closed Systems; Alternative Truth): A very corrupt and dangerous fallacy of logos and ethos, first formally described in medieval times but still common today, holding that there exists one "truth" in one given environment (e.g., in science, work or school) and simultaneously a different, formally contradictory but equally true "truth" in a different epistemic system, context, environment, intended audience or discourse community (e.g., in one's religion or at home). This can lead to a situation of stable cognitive dissonance where, as UC Irvine scholar Dr. Carter T. Butts describes it (2016), "I know but don't believe," making rational discussion difficult, painful or impossible. This fallacy also describes the discourse of politicians who cynically proclaim one "truth" as mere "campaign rhetoric" used "to mobilize the base," or "for domestic consumption only," and a quite different and contradictory "truth" for more general or practical purposes once in office. See also Disciplinary Blinders; Alternative Truth.

Venting (also, Letting off Steam; Loose Lips): In the Venting fallacy a person argues that her/his words are or ought to be exempt from criticism or consequence because s/he was "only venting," even though this very admission implies that the one "venting" was, at long last, freely expressing his/her true, heartfelt and uncensored opinion about the matter in question. This same fallacy applies to minimizing, denying the significance of or excusing other forms of frank, unguarded or uninhibited offensive expression as mere "Locker-room Talk," "Alpha-male Speech" or nothing but cute, adorable, perhaps even sexy "Bad-boy Talk." See also, the Affective Fallacy. Opposite to this fallacy are the fallacies of Political Correctness and the Scripted Message, above.

Venue: The ancient fallacy of Venue, a corrupt argument from kairos, falsely and arbitrarily invalidates an otherwise-valid argument or piece of evidence because it is supposedly offered in the wrong place, at the wrong moment or in an inappropriate court, medium or forum. According to PhD student Amanda Thran, "Quite often, people will say to me in person that Facebook, Twitter, etc. are 'not the right forums' for discussing politically and socially sensitive issues. ... In this same vein, I’ve also encountered the following argument: 'Facebook, which is used for sharing wedding, baby, and pet photos, is an inappropriate place for political discourse; people don’t wished to be burdened with that when they log in.' In my experience, this line of reasoning is most often employed (and abused) to shut down a conversation when one feels they are losing it. Ironically, I have seen it used when the argument has already been transpiring on the platform [in] an already lengthy discussion." See also Disciplinary Blinders.

 

[The Learner]

We Have to Do Something: (also, the Placebo Effect; Political Theater; Security Theater; We have to send a message): The dangerous contemporary fallacy that when "People are scared / People are angry / People are fed up / People are hurting / People want change" it becomes necessary to do something, anything, at once without stopping to ask "What?" or "Why?", even if what is done is an overreaction, is a completely ineffective sham, an inert placebo, or actually makes the situation worse, rather than "just sitting there doing nothing." (E.g., "Banning air passengers from carrying ham sandwiches onto the plane and making parents take off their newborn infants' tiny pink baby-shoes probably does nothing to deter potential terrorists, but people are scared and we have to do something to respond to this crisis!") This is a badly corrupted argument from pathos. (See also "Scare Tactic" and "The Big 'But' Fallacy.")

Where there’s Smoke, there’s Fire (also Hasty Conclusion; Jumping to a Conclusion): The dangerous fallacy of ignorantly drawing a snap conclusion and/or taking action without sufficient evidence. E.g., “Captain! The guy sitting next to me in coach has dark skin and is reading a book in some kind of funny language all full of accent marks, weird squiggles above the "N's" and upside-down question marks. It must be Arabic! Get him off the plane before he blows us all to kingdom come!” A variety of the “Just in Case” fallacy. The opposite of this fallacy is the "Paralysis of Analysis."

The Wisdom of the Crowd (also, The Magic of the Market; the Wikipedia Fallacy; Crowdsourcing): A very common contemporary fallacy that individuals may be wrong but "the crowd" or "the market" is infallible, ignoring historic examples like witch-burning, lynching, and the market crash of 2008. This fallacy is why most American colleges and universities currently (2017) ban students from using Wikipedia as a serious reference source.

The Worst-Case Fallacy (also, "Just in case;" "We can't afford to take chances;" "An abundance of caution;" "Better Safe than Sorry;" "Better to prevent than to lament."): A pessimistic fallacy by which one’s reasoning is based on an improbable, far-fetched or even completely imaginary worst-case scenario rather than on reality. This plays on pathos (fear) rather than reason, and is often politically motivated. E.g., "What if armed terrorists were to attack your county grain elevator tomorrow morning at dawn? Are you ready to fight back? Better stock up on assault rifles and ammunition today, just in case!" See also Scare Tactics. The opposite of this is the Positive Thinking Fallacy.

The Worst Negates the Bad (also, Be Grateful for What You've Got): The extremely common modern logical fallacy that an objectively bad situation somehow isn't so bad simply because it could have been far worse, or because someone, somewhere has it even worse. E.g., "I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw someone who had no feet." Or, "You're protesting because you earn only $7.25 an hour? You could just as easily be out on the street! I happen to know there are people in Uttar Pradesh who are doing the very same work you're doing for one tenth of what you're making, and they're pathetically glad just to have work at all. You need to shut up, put down that picket sign, get back to work for what I care to pay you, and thank me each and every day for giving you a job!"

Zero Tolerance(also, Zero Risk Bias, Broken Windows Policing, Disproportionate Response; Even One is Too Many; Exemplary Punishment; Judenrein): The contemporary fallacy of declaring an "emergency" and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem. E.g., "I just read about an actual case of cannibalism somewhere in this country. That's disgusting, and even one case is way, way too many! We need a Federal Taskforce against Cannibalism with a million-dollar budget and offices in every state, a national SCAN program in all the grade schools (Stop Cannibalism in America Now!), and an automatic double death penalty for cannibals; in other words, zero tolerance for cannibalism in this country!" This is a corrupt and cynical argument from pathos, almost always politically driven, a particularly sinister variety of Dog Whistle Politics and the "We Have to do Something" fallacy. See also, "Playing on Emotions," "Red Herring," and also the "Big Lie Technique."
OW 7/06 with thanks to the late Susan Spence. Final revision 1/18, with special thanks to Business Insider, Teaching Tolerance, and Vox.com, to Bradley Steffens, to Jackson Katz, Brian Resnick, Glen Greenwald, Lara Bhasin, Danelle M. Pecht, Marc Lawson, Eimar O'Duffy, and Mike Caetano, to Dr. William Lorimer, Dr. Carter T. Butts, Dr. Bo Bennett, Myron Peto, Joel Sax, Thomas Persing, Amanda Thran, and to all the others who suggested corrections, additions and clarifications. Links to Amazon.com on this page are for reader convenience only, and no endorsement is offered or implied. This list is no longer being maintained, but please continue to copy, mirror, update and share it freely.

Master List of Logical Fallacies

 

[The Learner]

Word Study Fallacies (Carson)​

Many preachers, speakers, and Bible teachers know at least a little Greek. Knowing a little Greek isn’t a bad thing, but trying to use the little Greek one knows often turns out badly. One example is when it comes to Greek word studies. Word study errors are legion. From defining the word by its root, to always defining the word in the exact same way, to missing metaphors, word studies that are not careful and nuanced can be a train wreck! Don Carson helpfully lists sixteen (!) word study fallacies in his book, Exegetical Fallacies. Here are a few:

The root fallacy. “The root fallacy presupposes that every word actual has a meaning bound up with its shape or its components. In this view, meaning is determined by etymology; that is, by the root or roots of a word.” For example, some say that “apostle” is “one sent” because the Greek words are similar (apostolos and apostello).
Semantic anachronism. “This fallacy occurs when a late use of a word is read back into earlier literature.” For example, some wrongly say that the Greek word power (dynamis) has to do with what we think of as “dynamite.” This is incorrect; Paul was not thinking of blowing things up when he used the term power (dynamis).
Linkage of language and mentality. “The heart of this fallacy is the assumption that any language so constrains the thinking processes of the people who used it that they are forced into certain patterns of thought and shielded from others.”

Carson notes more; this is a short and edited summary. The chapter closes with these wise words – words which those of us who do word studies need to read carefully!

“Perhaps the principal reason why word studies constitute a particularly rich source for exegetical fallacies is that man y preachers and Bible teachers know Greek only well enough to use concordances, or perhaps a little more. There is little feel for Greek as a language; and so there is the temptation to display what has been learned in study, which as often as not is a great deal of lexical information without the restraining influence of context. The solution, of course, is to learn more Greek, not less, and to gain at least a rudimentary knowledge of linguistics. …The heart of the issue is that semantics, meaning, is more than the meaning of words. It involves phrases, sentences, discourse, genre, style; it demands a feel not only for syntagmatic word studies (those that relate to other words) but also paradigmatic word studies (those that ponder why this word is used instead of that word).

D. A Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, chapter one.

 

[The Learner]

Since we’re prone to these kinds of historical fallacies, Carl Trueman’s book, Histories and Fallacies is a great help to avoiding these mistakes.

Butchering History?

I’m sure some of our readers know what an exegetical fallacy is – word study fallacies, grammatical fallacies, etc. It is also important for us to realize that we can make errors when…

reformedreader.wordpress.com

Just Enough Greek To Be Dangerous (Or: Common Exegetical Fallacies)

One helpful book we used in seminary was Don Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies. Thankfully, both my college and seminary Greek professors told me not to make foolish exegetical remarks based on a…

reformedreader.wordpress.com

 

[The Learner]

Word-Study Fallacies by Robert Cara

At my seminary, I often teach the introductory Greek course. On the first or second day of class, at least one student and I will have the following typical con

www.ligonier.org

1. The Root Fallacy
   • Definition: The presupposition that the meaning of a given word is bound up in its shape, components, or etymology.
   • Example: 1 Cor 4:1 — “So then, men ought to regard us as servants (ὑπηρετης) of Christ…” The word for servants used in this passage has been mistakenly translated as “under-rower” because of the apparent use of the prepositional prefix ὑπο( meaning “under” and the root “ἐρετης” which may appear to be related to ἐρεσσω, a word for “rower” used in Homer. However, it is fallacious to derive the meaning of ὑπηρετης directly from these two components; the word does not mean “under-rower” but simply servant. (An English parallel would be deriving the meaning of pineapple from pine and apple.) Deriving word meanings in this fashion is not necessarily fallacious (as in the case of ἐκβάλλω, to throw out), but care must be taken.
2. Semantic Anachronism
   • Definition: Fallacy where a late definition of a word is read back into earlier literature.
   • Example: Rom 1:16 — “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power (δύναμις) of God unto salvation….” Here δύναμις may be mistakenly translated to dynamite, a later derivative of the original Greek word. This translation is fallacious because Paul would not have had the idea of “dynamite” in mind when he penned the epistle, nor would such a definition fit the context of the passage (dynamite, while powerful, destroys, but Paul is speaking of God’s power in effecting salvation).
3. Semantic Obsolescence
   • Definition: Fallacy where the interpreter applies an obsolete meaning of a word.
   • Example: The use of the word κεφαλή in 1 Cor 11:2-16 has been taken to mean “source” or “origin” based on standard classical lexicon definitions. However, by the time of the Biblical writing, this use of κεφαλή was obsolete; instead, the word would have been taken to mean “head” in the New Testament time period.
4. Appeal to Unknown or Unlikely Meanings
   • Definition: Fallacy where an unknown, unlikely, or esoteric meaning is applied to a given word.
   • Example: Continuing with the previous example, even in the standard classical lexicon, the use of κεφαλή to signify “source” or “origin” is both rare and uncertain. Therefore, even ignoring the semantic obsolescence fallacy, this particular meaning is unlikely. Its lack of attestation in the history of interpretation also suggests that a rare and uncertain meaning of a word has been applied to κεφαλή in NT contexts because of ideological reasons.
5. Careless Appeal to Background Material
   • Definition: This fallacy is similar to the appeal to unknown or unlikely meanings in that it misapplies the background of a given word, although that background may not produce an unknown or unlikely meaning.
   • Example: Carson’s own dissertation referenced John 3:5 “water and (εξ ὕδατος) the Spirit.” In his original interpretation, he weighed the various past interpretations and landed on the likelihood that water referred to “male semen” and therefore in context Jesus is speaking of “natural birth (water) and supernatural birth (spirit).” However, one of his students showed him that it is better to understand these two words as a fulfillment of Ezek 36:25-27. Therefore, Jesus is neither referring to multiple births in this verse (though he uses the language of being ‘reborn’ earlier), nor is he using ‘water and spirit’ as a hendiadys. He rather refers to the one birth (the re-birth) and the dual work of the Spirit in this birth – to clean (with water) and make new (with spirit).

 

[The Learner]

Google list all word study fallacies for more

I see many of the logical and word study fallices in cults like Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, Christian Science, Mind Science, and others.

Google Bible study errors

 

[Taken]

There is no spiritual gift called "the gift of tongues".

I do believe as recorded in Acts 2, the apostles were given a “special blessing/gift” for a particular occasion of a meet together on Pentecost, of many attendees that spoke several different languages, and for that time, the apostles were given the ability to speak to them in their own native language.

I also think preachers who blabber out incoherent blabber, are not speaking in a language for the benefit of someone listening to them, and is more of a disruption performance than was Gods intent for the apostles to speak in a foreign language FOR the benefit of those listening to the Word of God.

Glory to God,
Taken

 

[The Learner]

Bible study errors

Don't Make These 10 Common Bible Study Mistakes (Part 1)

We know we ought to be studying the Scriptures, but sometimes we don’t know how. Here are five of 10 common Bible study mistakes to avoid.

www.logos.com

Don't Make These 10 Common Bible Study Mistakes (Part 2)

Last week we examined five of the most common mistakes made when studying the Bible. Today, we’re going to cover five more.

www.logos.com

10 Mistakes To Avoid When Studying the Bible

Anyone can study the Bible and learn about Christianity, God, and themselves. As you attempt that study, there are several learning mistakes you should avoid.

www.thekjvstore.com

Bible Study Mistakes

7 mistakes we can make when studying the Bible . . .

biblicalpreaching.net

A Dangerous Bible Study Mistake YOU Should Avoid

Let’s be honest. Being a Christian means we believe some pretty remarkable things that many people would consider to be nonsense. For some, it’s difficult to believe that God exists, and that Jesus rose from the dead. Such ideas seem foolish to them. But imagine if we also told these people that...

ses.edu

Five Common Bible Interpretation Errors — Transform

“Interpreting the Bible Correctly and Faithfully is not difficult.” Why would I say such a thing? It is not because I have any confidence in human ingenuity or intelligence, nor do I believe that the subject material of Scripture is simplistic and weightless. I am certainly not under the illusion t

transform.westernseminary.edu

https://blog.rose-publishing.com/2016/01/05/8-mistakes-people-make-when-reading-the-bible-and-how-to-avoid-them/

10 Mistakes to Avoid When Reading the Bible

cfaith is a leading provider of free Christian content for the worldwide faith community. Cfaith's extensive content library includes thousands of teaching articles, daily devotions, and audio and video messages from hundreds of different pastors and ministers.

www.cfaith.com

 

[The Learner]

But you don't name any council, or why they were convened. You just pass flatus with stupid self defeating zingers. If it weren't for councils, there would be no Bible. duhHELLO??? I'm sure you don't get it, cognitive dissonance is a powerful defense mechanism.

You place yourself in judgement of all Christian churches, the same as every made-in-America Bible club that has to revise history so it fits their man made system.
Todays reputable Protestant historians are the enemy of anti-Catholics. Cults associate the "man of lawlessness" with Catholicism. Many of todays Protestant scholars have backed away from the reformers anti-Catholic assertions. That's because, upon scrutiny and honest research and mature scholarship, the reformers anti-Catholic assertions are embarrassing. "mature scholarship" rules out the absurd wanna-be preachers on YouTube. There is literally an exodus of Protestant scholars and ministers swimming the Tiber.

The need to demonized the Catholic Church ended with Vatican II. Those documents are rarely mocked. But you would rather pontificate myths made popular by professional liars getting rich off people's predisposition to bigotry or lack of education. It's no coincidence that most rabid anti-Catholic rhetoric

• was spawned from the same country: USA.
• in the same time frame (late 18th century)
• always founded by one person, most of them were Protestant pastors,
• and all of them are less than 200 years old which is as far back as the line of thought is traced.

Nobody is born a racist.
Nobody is born an atheist.
Nobody is born an anti-Catholic
But the socialization process is the same. Most atheists had traumatic childhoods so I often wonder if there is a parallel with rabid anti-Catholics.
Nurturing voluntary doubt leads to spiritual blindness.

2087 Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith"9 as our first obligation. He shows that "ignorance of God" is the principle and explanation of all moral deviations.10 Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him.

2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:

Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.

2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."11

* Hope

2090 When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.

2091 The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption:

By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - and to his mercy.

2092 There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).

Catechism of the Catholic Church - PART 3 SECTION 2 CHAPTER 1 ARTICLE 1

 

[The Learner]

Oh WOW..."Few do". You are the epitome of egocentricism; a self appointed expert at not seeing the forest from the trees. Who appointed you an expert? Why? Jesus doesn't need experts, He had nothing to do with them and He certainly didn't appoint you. You probably purchased your ointment from men you have 100% faith in because going to Jesus directly for His Anointing isn't in your religious syllabus
doctrines.

 

[The Learner]

So why do you JW's constantly try to rewrite the Christian Bible to change the clear meaning?

 

[The Learner]

How would you recognize a "Hebrew scholar"?

Johannes Greber was a spiritualist. The watchtower uses him to justifly their mistranslation.

Library : How The Watchtower Relied On A Spiritualist Bible Translation

How The Watchtower Relied On A Spiritualist Bible Translation In this article Father Mitch Pacwa points out the contradictions presented by defenders of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. One by one, he disassembles the claims made by the organization by demonstrating the truth of the...

www.catholicculture.org

Communication with the Spirit World of God: Its Laws and Purpose
Johannes Greber

The New Testament Me: which is from the Occult
Johannes Greber

If one places Greber's NT, next to NWT all the mistranslations are word for word the same.

Google Johannes Greber was a spiritualist watchtower

 

[The Learner]

"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

What are you doing?

/

Showing the moral sins of their leaders. Also, the logic, word study fallacies and history fallacies in their thinking.

Jesus says,
"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

A rock flies over his head.

Jesus says, Mom.lol