Bottled water is “one of the greatest cons of the 20th century”, due to it being “vastly overpriced” with little to “differentiate it from tap water” according to water companies.
First-ever demo of a 3-D invisibility cloak for visible light
Wow … Harry Potter reality here I come … this sounds amazing. So here are some details.
Saints – Christian Jedi Knights!!
Why do Americans still dislike atheists?
Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman published an article in yesterdays Washington Post ….
Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is still a group that lots of Americans just don’t like much: atheists. Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can’t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently “spiritual” in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.
The “Arguing from Authority” fallacy
A claim is correct because the claim has been made by somebody who is authoritative.
OK, if it is a well known fallacy, then why write about it? Well, I’d like to take a look at three real-world examples to illustrate that there are multiple variations of this, and that no variation is an exception. This includes:
- Fake Credentials – A supposed expert making claims, but their Ph.D. is fake
- Out-Of-Context Credentials – A supposed expert making claims, but the subject of their degree has nothing to do with the claim
- Real Credentials, but a bullshit claim – An true expert, with a real claim, but no actual evidence for the claim
So lets take a look at each of these it turn.
Taking on the Faith Healers – “Miracles for Sale”
Brown grew up Christian and saw faith healers as “worrisome” but not to be taken too seriously – a view he didn’t change until he abandoned his faith. “Coming out of Christianity altogether and having a slightly clearer sense in my own mind of what I believed and what I didn’t believe … it was much clearer to me: no, no, this is just a scam,” he says.