Row and Bee

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Argumentum ad Ignorantiam

Kilre

on Nov. 17, 2009

I had to check through my multi-year archive over here to make sure I hadn't covered this exact topic before. I don't think I have, so let's jump right into this before I jump into the shower.

Right. The argument from ignorance is actually something I've run across in my many times sitting at my atheist group's table in Free Speech Alley. From the Skeptic's Dictionary, "the argument to ignorance is a logical fallacy of irrelevance occurring when one claims that something is true only because it hasn't been proved false, or that something is false only because it has not been proved true." It's never explicitly stated as such, and in some cases there is a genuine interest in learning of opposing views, but the more evangelical they are, the more likely they'll take the route of, when talking about origins, "you believe we came from mud", or start mentioning the value of human dignity or some such thing. I covered the argument from mud puddles, or "how I don't know shit about abiogenesis and think it's the same as evolution", which is still a grievous error. Not knowing about something and then trying to argue against it is essentially straw manning a position, and it's real easy to kill a straw man if you set him up like you want.

What can we do to combat this unwarranted smug ignorance? Why, we pelt them with hardcover books and hope that the knowledge contained between their covers somehow breaks through their thick skulls.

Or we post lots of links to interesting science things in the hopes of bringing them to light.

The Scientific Case for Common Descent
Index to Creationist Claims
The Age of the Earth
How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic
Age Of The Earth - John Pendleton Debunk
Darwin's finches tracked to reveal evolution in action
Research Ties Human Acts to Harmful Rates of Species Evolution
Tickled apes yield laughter clue
LCROSS Impact Data Indicates Water on Moon
CELL SIZE AND SCALE
Exoplanets Clue to Sun's Curious Chemistry

I think that should do for now, considering everything that I've posted in my other rants. Especially the ones about evolution.

This is the information age, people. There is very little excuse for not knowing about these kinds of things.