Appealing to authority: a logical fallacy when someone believes something just because so-and-so says.
Example: "Leaves DO SO turn purple when they fall off; my big brother says so!"
Everywhere you look, people are shouting out theories and guesses and sometimes even just LIES, and their audience is taking it in like it's proven fact.
Um, sorry, but for something to be "proven fact", it has to be PROVEN first.
Think about all the stuff we Americans are taking in by the minute.
Tabloid gossip.
Global warming.
Evolution.
There are more, but those are the ones that come to mind, and that I'm going to try to focus on.
First of all, I completely understand why tabloids print such awful stuff about celebrities, and I can also understand why people read them. No problem there. The problem comes when the general public BELIEVES all that junk just because a trashy magazine says so. Puh-leez. Sure it's fun to read, but don't you think the writers of those magazines are going to try to put the worst and juciest spin on things?
That's kind of a minor issue in my book, though. So people believe gossip, okay. It's not a matter of life or death, or even public intelligence. It's just silly and vaguely annoying, but that's about it.
Now come the big two:
Global warming and Evolution.
I already ranted about global warming, so I won't do it again, don't worry. I'm just going to say that to believe in global warming, you're forced to rely on the least accurate and smallest pieces of information. If you ask any earnest scientist, s/he will tell you that as much comotion as people are making about GW, it's not really a problem. The earth naturally runs in cycles like this. In twenty years, we'll probably be going through a "global cooling" scare again.
Yes, AGAIN. That already happened. And now we're into global warming.
And the disgusting thing is, WE STILL BELIEVE IT!
COME ON, people! Global cooling? Global warming? They're just big hoaxes designed to get us all stirred up.
Don't believe me, though. I don't want you to do that.
I want you to go do some research for yourself. I've done mine, you do yours. Don't take stuff from me or even big shot scientists without looking into it a little. A little healthy skepticism never hurt anyone. In fact, it's actually been known to help occasionally. Especially in times like these when selective use of evidence is booming.
Which brings me to my final section of this tirade: Evolution.
*sigh*
If you believe in Evolution (capital "E"), you are going to skip this section, so I'm pretty much wasting my breath. Still, I'm going to try to straighten this out even a little.
First, define terms. This is really important, especially in an Evolution debate, because there are two definitions to Evolution, and I believe in one of them.
evolution: the belief that things change slightly over time to adapt to their surroundings.
Evolution: the belief that life began as an unguided fluke, then species gradually changed and mutated into completely different species.
Take a wild guess which one I believe? :)
There's really so much I could say about Evolution that I could do a whole series on it.
Which is exactly what I'm going to do.
I'm going to close this post, and begin my series on Evolution.
I'm sorry if this wasn't much of a post. I feel like I wasted a good thought. Hope you don't feel that way.
Ah, first comment! Sorry it had to be a liberal. Pretty quick, though. I didn't skip over any of it, and I did think you brought up a decent debate, but I was kinda surprised at how critical and closeminded it was. That sounds really blunt. That's all I'm going to say about that. But I do agree what you're saying about tabloid gossip. I might sound like a corny motivational speaker a bit when I say rumors are not good for anyone and it's too easy for people to believe them. But things you read from the internet are FAR different from published articles from scientists or authority.
ReplyDeleteAbout appeal to authority, I understand what you're saying, but appeal to authority is just logical. I mean, automatically accepting what the government says is not at all healthy, but listening to the reason of people who have the right to announce it? That's okay. I'm not going to repeat what I said before, but scientists do have the right to say global warming is valid. It has been brought up that the earth goes through cycles like this all the time, but it this is a bit different. It is clear that humans are causing this climate change, and it is clear that it can be hurtful to us. No, Global Warming is not a proven fact. No, it is not proven that Global Warming is a myth. But it does look likely.
Yes, Evolution is an even less strong theory. I think that there is a lot of evidence to prove that it is true, but I'm waiting to see your evidence that Evolution is also a myth. But one thing I don't want to see anyone doing is refusing to believe in Evolution or Global Warming just because it goes against their prior beliefs. Again, I'm being rather blunt, but I want to make sure there is a difference in this controversy between having a case and being close-minded or even stubborn. Thanks for being able to stand me!
We agree on a lot at least according to this comment :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, there are times when listening to authorities is a perfectly acceptable way of gaining information. I'm not saying that all scientists are quacks out to get us, I'm just saying that some of them state things as fact that we need to look into.
Curious: how is it clear that we are causing global warming?
You're absolutely right that dismissing an idea because it goes against your original beliefs is wrong. I agree completely. Naturally, I was opposed to Evolution from the start, but at the "school" (Classical Conversations) that I go to, that's not good enough. We research things and read books from both the Christian perspective and the secular. For some of us, just refusing to accept Evolution is enough, but that doesn't fly in our school. We have to be able to reasonably and logically explain WHY we believe what we believe, and that's what I'm trying to do.
I hope you won't be disappointed in the evidence that I put forward over the next couple of months.
Thanks for reading! You are probably my most exciting follower yet :)
good post. Can't wait for the stuff on Evolution! Knock 'em dead!
ReplyDeleteI can't help but noticing that the one for evolution writes a long detailed comment and the one against just puts good post. knock em dead. Wow. Anyway, I sure you probably hat me by now, but I'll just keep posting anyway like that annoying like fly that you try to swat but it just keep evading you! That's me! But pack to the comment. I thought for sure you'd put something like "Evil-ution!" Have you ever read Inherit the Wind? It's one of my favorite plays and it's all about the evolution vs religion debate. Any what about evidence? There's a museum in Kentucky that I read about in the NY Times that is about creationism. I looked it up online and I couldn't believe it. It was like an insult to creationists it was that bad. They said the there were dinosaurs on the ark and that they evolved into birds in two thousand years. Before I even get started I think it's interesting to point out that they said they EVOLVED! The museum went against it's own belief! And they also aid it evolved into a whole other creature in just 2000 years which is impossible. I guess their excuse for that is God made it possible, but if that were the case then why didn't God just zap 'em? Just curious. I'd also like to say that your comment to another comment I made about the American Revolution. The taxes that were put upon us were a result of a war that the British had fought against the French for our own protection. They British government was bankrupt and needed money so they began taxing. In fact, the citizens of England were taxed more than the colonists and had worse living conditions. But anyway, a lot of rich white male land owners were losing money on this and needed a way out. You calll these gentlemen the Fathers of Freedom. They thought the only way out was revoltuion. So they acted. A small event in Boston were 7 people were killed as a result of the colonists provoking the British became know as the Boston Massacre. Some of the people who died in the "massacre" were British soldiers. The soldiers who did fire in self defense were found innocent. We also did small terrorist activities in small towns such as killing soliders and burning down British forts which at the time were our forts which makes them terrorist activities. We did horrible things, but through clever press manipulation and movie like The Patriot, people think that we just peacefully wanted to leave and the big bad British came and tried to kill us. WRONG!!!!!! I loved to continue this, but I've got to go.
ReplyDeleteabout global warming: you say it's based on inaccurate data. well, I watched "an inconvenient truth" and it was astonished. it practically proves global warming exists and that it's caused by humans. besides, how to know which information is right? the one the people like al gore show, or the skepcticals' one? since the common people don't have a way to actually know if the data they are being given is true, it's more a matter of chosing which one to believe. I believe in global warming and I think that even if it's not true, it doesn't hurt to believe and it can actually makes us better people. being it bad for earth in general or not, I'm strongly against pollution, deforestation, etc.
ReplyDeleteabout Evolution: no one (that I know of) presented it as a proven fact. it is merely a theory, and it's the one most people believe in because it seems the most likely one, considering the chemistry and physics laws, and evidence found in our planet
now I'm gonna talk about a delicate subject: religion. first of all, I want to make clear I totally respect those who follow a religion. it's just something that I'm curious about
isn't most of it based in what people tell? global warming and Evolution have many evidence and according data, but what about religion? people believe it because they grew up with other believers. did you carefully think if you wanted to believe in god or not, considering what facts are proven? you most likely don't even realise when you started believing in him, because you were always surrounded by that environment. just like me, but in the opposite sense: I never believed, and I don't remember thinking about this as a little kid to choose if I was gonna be religious or not
just to finish: once again, I say I have nothing against religion. except for extremists, like some terrorists, religion either doesn't affect one's life, or makes one a better person. I just can't bring myself to trust there's a god