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■ argument from authority
In a debate in 1994, astronomer Carlson Chambliss made frequent appeals to authority, including himself. A person who attended the debate overheard occasional comments from the audience, such as "How modest!"
Now shouldn't a belief stand on its own merits rather than some celebrity endorsement? That's like if we told the Evolutionists "You'd better believe in Creationism because Louis Agassiz, Robert Boyle, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Faraday, Johann Kepler, Carolus Linnaeus, Gregor Mendel, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and Louis Pasteur did."
■ straw man
This nickname applies to the practice of putting words in an opponent's mouth. In his 1994 book, Telling Lies for God, Ian Plimer wrote that Creationists were claiming that gold chains had been fossilized in Australian coal seams since Deluvian times. Jim Lippard, who is an Evolutionist himself, investigated the story and found it to be untrue.
This is the sort of thing you get when you deal with vile wretches who say that life spontaneously combusted itself on earth, that there is no God, and that therefore there is no right or wrong.
■ guilt by association
This fallacy operates as follows:
Group member A makes claim P.
B is also a group member.
Therefore, Person B also makes claim P.
In his 1988 debate with Duane Gish, Kenneth S. Saladin gave a perfect example. He referred to fundamentalists of Alabama and Tennessee who wanted the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson thrown out of the public schools. He also added that some publications by the Institute for Creation Research present alien encounters as a Satanic conspiracy.
On the other hand, we would never think of misrepresenting Evolutionists, atheists, liberals, abortionists, heathens, anarchists, Communists, Nazis, terrorists, homosexuals, drug abusers, murderers, fornicators, and alcoholics through guilt by association.
■ extrapolation fallacy
Ian Plimer again. In his 1988 debate with Duane Gish, Plimer read a 55-word excerpt from one of Gish's writings, stopping 5 times to say "That is a lie." From this sample, Plimer calculated that Creationist writings in general contain an average of one lie every 11 words.
So any and every statistic can be projected, is that right? Let's try it out: The average newborn boy in the United States is 1'9" tall. The average newborn girl is 1'7" tall. The average newborn boy grows 9" the first year. The average newborn girl grows 8.5" the first year. If Plimer's premise is true, then the average boy and the average girl will continue growing at the same rate throughout an average lifespan of 77 years. That means that the boy will eventually reach a height of 59' 6" and the girl will reach a height of 56' 1 1/2".
■ out-of-context quotes
Would you believe, at least one Evolutionist has been so audacious and deceitful as to quote a Creationist out of context! On page 185 of his book, Abusing Science, Philip Kitcher quoted Gish as saying:
Kitcher closed the chapter with the words "How true."
That wasn't what Gish meant, and Kitcher knew it. Now how could anyone be so vile and so wretched as to quote someone else out of context? A Creationist would never sink so low as to pull such an underhanded trick! Never, never, never!
■ ad hominem
In this fallacy, one attacks the belief rather than the believer. Evolution's most notorious ad hominem seems to be Ian Plimer, who, as we have seen, debated Creationist Duane Gish in 1988. Plimer opened his address with the words, "I accuse the leaders of fraud, perversity, [unintelligible], fabricating their evidence, and lying about the scientific evidence." Later in the debate, Plimer made a hand gesture toward Gish and said, "They are telling lies for mammon. Here is Satan. He wants God's claiming for the Devil's word." Plimer closed the debate with the words, "Out of the temple, money changers!"
And here we only say nice things about Evolutionists!
When Evolutionists aren't trying to make us look evil, they're trying to make us look stupid. In 1985, a prankster found a piece of railroad tie and soaked it in teriyaki sauce to create an aging effect. He then concocted a story about seeing Noah's Ark at the Ararat Mountain range, which he had never visited, and he pretended that the piece of wood was a fragment thereof.
He approached leading Creationist advocates with his story. He gained the support of several ICR personnel. The news media accepted his story, and a documentary on the subject was telecasted in 1993.
Jim Lippard got a hold of this story and wrote it up in Skeptic magazine in 1994. Now do you think that was very nice of him? I don't either. Creationists loving and forgiving people. We would never want to embarrass Evolutionists with stories about Piltdown Man and the Archaeoraptor, so we keep it to ourselves.
So it's your choice: Will you embrace Creationism and walk the path of truth, virtue, and goodness? Or will you embrace Evolution and fall into the snares of Satan?
In a debate in 1994, astronomer Carlson Chambliss made frequent appeals to authority, including himself. A person who attended the debate overheard occasional comments from the audience, such as "How modest!"
Now shouldn't a belief stand on its own merits rather than some celebrity endorsement? That's like if we told the Evolutionists "You'd better believe in Creationism because Louis Agassiz, Robert Boyle, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Faraday, Johann Kepler, Carolus Linnaeus, Gregor Mendel, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and Louis Pasteur did."
■ straw man
This nickname applies to the practice of putting words in an opponent's mouth. In his 1994 book, Telling Lies for God, Ian Plimer wrote that Creationists were claiming that gold chains had been fossilized in Australian coal seams since Deluvian times. Jim Lippard, who is an Evolutionist himself, investigated the story and found it to be untrue.
This is the sort of thing you get when you deal with vile wretches who say that life spontaneously combusted itself on earth, that there is no God, and that therefore there is no right or wrong.
■ guilt by association
This fallacy operates as follows:
Group member A makes claim P.
B is also a group member.
Therefore, Person B also makes claim P.
In his 1988 debate with Duane Gish, Kenneth S. Saladin gave a perfect example. He referred to fundamentalists of Alabama and Tennessee who wanted the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson thrown out of the public schools. He also added that some publications by the Institute for Creation Research present alien encounters as a Satanic conspiracy.
On the other hand, we would never think of misrepresenting Evolutionists, atheists, liberals, abortionists, heathens, anarchists, Communists, Nazis, terrorists, homosexuals, drug abusers, murderers, fornicators, and alcoholics through guilt by association.
■ extrapolation fallacy
Ian Plimer again. In his 1988 debate with Duane Gish, Plimer read a 55-word excerpt from one of Gish's writings, stopping 5 times to say "That is a lie." From this sample, Plimer calculated that Creationist writings in general contain an average of one lie every 11 words.
So any and every statistic can be projected, is that right? Let's try it out: The average newborn boy in the United States is 1'9" tall. The average newborn girl is 1'7" tall. The average newborn boy grows 9" the first year. The average newborn girl grows 8.5" the first year. If Plimer's premise is true, then the average boy and the average girl will continue growing at the same rate throughout an average lifespan of 77 years. That means that the boy will eventually reach a height of 59' 6" and the girl will reach a height of 56' 1 1/2".
■ out-of-context quotes
Would you believe, at least one Evolutionist has been so audacious and deceitful as to quote a Creationist out of context! On page 185 of his book, Abusing Science, Philip Kitcher quoted Gish as saying:
There should be no room for question, no possibility of doubt, no opportunity for debate, no rationale whatsoever for the existence of the Institute for Creation Research.
Kitcher closed the chapter with the words "How true."
That wasn't what Gish meant, and Kitcher knew it. Now how could anyone be so vile and so wretched as to quote someone else out of context? A Creationist would never sink so low as to pull such an underhanded trick! Never, never, never!
■ ad hominem
In this fallacy, one attacks the belief rather than the believer. Evolution's most notorious ad hominem seems to be Ian Plimer, who, as we have seen, debated Creationist Duane Gish in 1988. Plimer opened his address with the words, "I accuse the leaders of fraud, perversity, [unintelligible], fabricating their evidence, and lying about the scientific evidence." Later in the debate, Plimer made a hand gesture toward Gish and said, "They are telling lies for mammon. Here is Satan. He wants God's claiming for the Devil's word." Plimer closed the debate with the words, "Out of the temple, money changers!"
And here we only say nice things about Evolutionists!
When Evolutionists aren't trying to make us look evil, they're trying to make us look stupid. In 1985, a prankster found a piece of railroad tie and soaked it in teriyaki sauce to create an aging effect. He then concocted a story about seeing Noah's Ark at the Ararat Mountain range, which he had never visited, and he pretended that the piece of wood was a fragment thereof.
He approached leading Creationist advocates with his story. He gained the support of several ICR personnel. The news media accepted his story, and a documentary on the subject was telecasted in 1993.
Jim Lippard got a hold of this story and wrote it up in Skeptic magazine in 1994. Now do you think that was very nice of him? I don't either. Creationists loving and forgiving people. We would never want to embarrass Evolutionists with stories about Piltdown Man and the Archaeoraptor, so we keep it to ourselves.
So it's your choice: Will you embrace Creationism and walk the path of truth, virtue, and goodness? Or will you embrace Evolution and fall into the snares of Satan?