Hey what’s up guys?! Let’s start off today’s episode with a quick review of the Appeal to Nature fallacy.
An Appeal to Nature is when someone says that because something is “natural”, it therefore must be good, better, healthier or somehow more desirable. But is it really?
Something that’s natural MAY be good or better for you, but is there any proof to back it up? Something that’s man-made MAY not be good for you, but is there any proof to back it up?
So, here’s a question to ask yourself if you’re faced with an Appeal to Nature: “Is it really true that this thing is more natural? And if it is, does that really make it better for me?
If you want to hear more about this fallacy or you need a quick review, go back & check out Episode 21.
Ok! Let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, which is called Personal Incredulity. And yes, that’s a hard one for me to pronounce. Incredulity comes from the word incredulous, which means “unwilling or unable to believe something”. So Personal Incredulity is when someone concludes something to be untrue just because they can’t imagine it being true. Or when someone has a hard time understanding something, so they just decide it can’t possibly be true since it’s so hard to understand.
What’s funny about this one is that I know someone who does this all the time. My mother-in-law is the sweetest, kindest person you’ll ever meet, and when she hears about violence or about some of the horrific things people do to each other in this world, she’ll say something like, “I just can’t believe people would do that to each other. There’s no way.” Lol. Well, just because she can’t imagine ever treating people badly doesn’t mean that it’s not actually happening!
The personal Incredulity fallacy reminds of the person who sticks their fingers in their ears and goes “Lalalalala, I can’t hear you!” because they’re not even trying to understand or to challenge their own beliefs. People use this fallacy when they don’t WANT to believe something to be true or to be false. But just because they don’t WANT it to be true or to be false doesn’t actually make it so! Remember, it all comes back to being willing to look at the available evidence about something when deciding whether something is true or false, not just your own emotions or feelings about it, or your own ability to understand it.
People sometimes use this argument when they’re talking about God, or about something from the Bible. They’ll say things like, “I can’t imagine how God could exist from eternity, so there has to be another explanation.” Or, “I can’t imagine how there could be so much evil in the world if God is so good, so clearly He can’t be good…or He doesn’t exist altogether.” Do you see in this example, they’re just relying on Personal Incredulity or their own ability to understand something to determine whether or not it’s true?
Now, likewise, we could look at this from the other side. Is it really a good argument to say, “I just can’t imagine how the whole earth as we know it could be created through evolution. There’s no way it’s true.” Hmm…not really. Now, I don’t believe in the theory of evolution, but this is a really weak argument. I would need to do more research and have a much better argument & evidence for why I don't believe in the theory of evolution.
Question to ask yourself: “Does the fact that I don’t believe it or understand it really make it false?” *or we could say it this way* “Does the fact that I don’t believe it or understand it really make it true?”
Alrighty! Join me next time when we’ll be talking about the No True Scotsman Fallacy, and
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?”
