Emotions are powerful persuasive forces, but when do appeals to emotion become fallacies? God created us with great emotional capacities, but in our fallen world, emotions can be used to mislead us to believe wrong or illogical ideas. Propaganda often involves strong emotional appeals, and research shows certain emotions affect critical thinking. Let’s see how emotions influence persuasion, and how to respond with the truth.
No True Scotsman arguments say that no real member of some group would do something; for instance, no true scientist would reject evolution. These arguments become fallacies when they redefine a key term—like what it means to be a scientist—to avoid counterarguments. Here are some examples of how...
Vestigial organs are structures in living things which supposedly had a function in their evolutionary ancestor, but now have ‘no function’—or at least, different or reduced functions. Whether the appendix, the tailbone or wisdom teeth, ‘vestigial’ structures are often considered evidence for evo...
Did you know you can spot certain fallacies by drawing pictures? Overlapping circles, called Venn Diagrams, illustrate statements about categories (like “All cats are mammals” or “Some cats are tigers), which form the basis of categorical arguments. Here’s how to spot flawed categorical arguments...
