6 Fallacies to Avoid in Apologetics

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Key Points:

• Alternative explanations. Aliens are an explanation for the origin of human life, but this alternative explanation does not in and of itself dismiss arguments for God’s existence. What is possible is not necessarily reasonable and all arguments must be examined.
• The genetic fallacy. This attempts to invalidate a proposition by explaining the proposition’s origin. Example: “Christians shouldn’t celebrate Halloween and Christmas because these holidays have pagan roots.” They do have pagan roots, but are Christians celebrating these holidays for the purpose of pagan worship? Probably not, and we are not committing blasphemy simply by observing these holidays if our goals are to celebrate Jesus’s birth or to let our kids have a fun time dressing up.
• Pragmatism is the idea that we should adopt a belief or practice because of its perceived usefulness. But the perceived usefulness of a proposition or the critique of a proposition on the basis of it’s so-called usefulness does not prove or disprove it.
• An ad hominen fallacy is an attack against the arguer instead of their argument. “Bill says God exists, but Bill is dumb, therefore Bill can’t be right about his belief in God.” Bill might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but that doesn’t mean he is wrong about God. If you are attacked instead of your argument, don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Stick to the discussion.
• Attacks on the Bible. Two of the most common are attacks on biblical morality and claims of contradiction. It can be tempting to turn to a separate argument about ethics or inerrancy, but unless this is the topic of your discussion, stick to the original discussion.
• Church behavior and history. This is a type of ad hominem. A famous pastor who hides sexual sin for decades is not an argument against God’s existence or the truth of the Bible. Neither are the Crusades. These things do not prove that the Bible is untrustworthy or that God doesn’t exist. On the contrary, they support the biblical teaching that all people – even Christians – are sinful and fall short of God’s glory.

Quote This:

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies (e.g. in politics), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation. -Wikipedia.org