The ‘you haven’t read everything I’ve ever written’ fallacy

Several days ago, I came across a link to a web forum hosted by Dorothy M. Murdock, also known as D.M. Murdock, but far better known as Acharya S. For those who aren’t familiar with the name, Acharya S is an author and proponent of the Christ myth theory.

But while numerous historians [...]

Faulty logic: Appeal to Popularity

It’s been too long since I’ve written an installment of the series on faulty logic. It’s time to continue it, with…

Appeal to Popularity

There was a time when pretty much everyone thought that the Earth was flat. There was a time when anyone who thought about it was sure the sun went around the [...]

Faulty logic: Appeal to Authority

Continuing the series on faulty logic, today we’ll look at:

Appeal to Authority

In our society, we hold various people up as authority figures, those we’re inclined to pay attention to. It’s not always clear why we have some folks on that list, really. Political leaders, such as presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, senators, and [...]

Thank You, Mrs. Walkman: OR How I Won a Drunken Argument with Seventh Grade Logic

This is what was inside of me

One of the most annoying questions that can be asked of a middle school math teacher is, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” Part of the annoyance is that for most kids, it’s kind of true. I don’t know about [...]

Faulty logic: False Dichotomy

It’s time for number two in a series of posts on faulty logic. Today’s fallacy:

False Dichotomy

We like things to be black or white, tall or short, here or there. We like to consider two sides to every story.

Unfortunately, there aren’t always two sides. Sometimes there’s only one; more often, there are multitudes. [...]

Faulty logic: Confirmation Bias

In “On being a skeptic”, I said that skeptics look at evidence and make rational judgments based on the evidence:

We don’t say, “Bullshit!”, and we don’t say, “It’s a scientist saying it, so it must be true.” We look at the evidence.

I note that non-skeptics — or those who style themselves as a different kind [...]

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