Hey, what’s up! Alright, y’all…we are wrapping up this little mini-series on emotional appeals today! Hopefully you’re seeing the commonality in all of them: when someone appeals to anything other than a real, solid, credible argument, they’re committing an appeal fallacy of some sort. By now, you’re probably getting really good at recognizing them when you hear them!
Ok…we have a doozy of an appeal fallacy to talk about today b/c this one is not going to feel like it’s totally cut & dry. You’re going to have to put in the work & effort to really think about this one, but that’s too easy. That’s what this podcast is all about and if you’ve been following along, you are getting the skills necessary to do the work to filter it through a brain cell and really think well about this!
Today’s fallacy is called the Appeal to Heaven fallacy. An appeal to heaven fallacy happens when someone claims to know the will of God and says that you should or shouldn’t do something b/c it either is or isn’t God’s will.
Now, before I get into examples of this, I feel like it’s important to say this. I’m a Christian, and as a Christian, I do believe that God has revealed His will to us through Scripture. For example…
And I do believe that where God has given us these things, we can confidently stand on them and know that they truly are God’s will. These things could be called a proper Appeal to Heaven. When we call people to the truth that is in Scripture, it’s not a fallacy, it’s just saying what God has already told us.
The problem, however, comes when someone tries to say that they know God’s will on something that He doesn’t actually say in Scripture.
For instance, Someone could say, “I know God wants me to be happy and a new puppy would make me happy, so it’s clearly God’s will for us to get a puppy!” Uhhh…first of all, it never says in Scripture that God wants us to be ‘happy’, and it also never says that God wants everyone to have puppies! Do you see how this appeal to heaven is actually a false claim and is appealing to something that God never actually said?
There are a few reasons that a false Appeal to Heaven is so dangerous:
1. It allows for massive amounts of manipulation! False Appeals to Heaven also fall under the category of an Appeal to Authority. And there’s no greater authority that you can appeal to than to God! So it sounds really BIG, and it sounds really serious when someone makes a faulty Appeal to Heaven. And b/c people either have reverence for God or they have fear of being punished by God, they’re very easily fooled by a faulty Appeal to Heaven.
2. The second reason this is a particularly insidious fallacy is that this false appeal to heaven can sound really close to the actual Truth. It’s very common for people to quote just one small part of Scripture or take a phrase completely out of context in order to present their argument to make it sound credible. This is why you have to use discernment. If you actually know the truth you will be able to stand on the truth. But if you don’t, you’re going to be really easy to fool by something that sounds good or sounds “close to something you read in the Bible that one time”.
3. The third reason..and there are probably more reasons I could list..but the third reason the False Appeal to Heaven is so dangerous is that it can make you feel like a terrible person to not go along with what “God has said”. It gets served up with a massive dose of guilt to make you feel bad about not doing God’s will. It’s times like this when you can say, “well, you might think so, but that’s not actually what God says” and be ok with them being unhappy with you. Don’t take that guilt trip they’re trying to give you.
The sad truth is that massive atrocities have been committed in the “name of God”. Look at the Crusades. Millions of people were killed during the time of the Crusades. All of that was based off the idea that it was God’s will to kill enemies of the church and to rid the earth of Islam & to free Jerusalem. An Appeal to Heaven was used to motivate men, women & even children to join the crusades and fight.
And, you know I have to give you an example from WW2, right? In WW2, there were people who actively supported Nazism and called themselves “storm troopers of Jesus Christ”. That’s an Appeal to Heaven! It’s saying, we’re doing these things in Jesus name, to accomplish His will. But the things they were doing were horrific and were nothing that is found in Scripture at all.
These are both examples of someone claiming that God said something that He didn’t really say. That God’s will is something that God never even said. They’re adding to what’s actually in Scripture and are using it to manipulate & guilt people into doing whatever THEY want them to do.
So, the Question to ask yourself if you think you might be facing a false Appeal to Heaven is this: “Is it really true that God said that or are they just trying to get me to do what THEY want me to do?”… *repeat*
Alright, that’s it for today…
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
