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Friday, October 10, 2008

Know Your Fallacies: Argumentum ad nauseam

Thought I'd shine a little light on a few fallacies from time to time and how they might apply to "he who must not be named" and his blog. I can't say how successful this will be, or if I will keep up with it, but why the hell not do it at least once?

The spotlight for this one is Argumentum ad nauseam, literally "argument to sickness".

A more specific definition from Wikipedia:

"An argument made repeatedly (possibly by different people) until nobody cares to discuss it anymore. This may sometimes, but not always, be a form of proof by assertion."

How does this apply to our friend? Almost all arguments he brings up fall under this fallacy. It involves parroting the same argument over and over again while one ignores the valid counter-arguments brought up against your own.

Long story short: "If something is repeated as true often enough, people will eventually come to accept it." - Joseph Goebbels

(P.S. I know Goebbels was a Nazi, that was the point of quoting him)

10 comments:

  1. This guy has a couple of good graphics for logic errors

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mac, you devil.

    I just picked this off the Comfort zone:

    MacGyver Jr said...
    Liz:Actually Ray I'm a "slightly irregular" atheist. So what should I be worried about?

    diarrhea?

    Priceless!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yaeger,

    I collect "Proofs of the Existence of God" as a hobby.

    The most widely used is:

    TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (I), a.k.a. DESIGN ARGUMENT
    (1) Check out the world/universe/giraffe. Isn't it complex?
    (2) Only God could have made them so complex.
    (3) Therefore, God exists.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aaaand, one of my personal favorites:

    ARGUMENT FROM INTERNET AUTHORITY
    (1) There is a website that successfully argues for the existence of God.
    (2) Here is the URL.
    (3) Therefore, God exists.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is my favorite site for proof of god!
    http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/GodProof.htm

    ReplyDelete
  6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzXF7YUyU2c

    I also love this one!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like 10 and 20 is the best!! (in the youtube vid)

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Froggie(Dale)

    I'm surprised it was approved :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mac,
    It's too bad those fundies have to be such humorless boobs.......

    ReplyDelete

Unlike Ray we don't censor our comments, so as long as it's on topic and not spam, fire away.

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