Chuck-ese

I was sitting in Church today, totally against my will. During one of my brief lucid periods, I heard the priest mention, in his sermon on humility, that one of the weakest arguments is the Argument from Authority. This struck me as odd, as I regressed back into a haze, because that Argument is the basis of all religions. Back in the day, before the scientific method, (or logic), man possessed only one way to explain the phenomina he witnessed: supernaturality. This arose from man’s tendency to assign an intentional stance to anything that affects him, regardless of the ability for that thing to have intention or motive (e.g. you blame the car when it won’t start). Modern people have logical and scientific ways of examining our environment, but those who reject, for example, the theory of evolution, do so by quoting from ancient texts written by prescientific people (i.e. Arguing from Authority).

Nobody should blindly accept statements made by anyone, regardless of authority. You should question what you hear and read, determine the reasoning behind the statements, the process by which the conclusions were reached. Then we may decide whether or not the statement is valid, and if it will be believed.

For more on the intentional stance, see Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion. For my source for all logical fallacies, see “Logic & Fallacies: Constructing a Logical Argument” on Infidels.org.