Today I’m going to talk about a bad argument that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with god claims, Magical Thinking. This type of faulty belief is the basis of all sorts of things from astrology, to ghost whisperers, and does, of course, include religion.

While Pascal’s Wager is the most idiotic argument, and Personal Incredulity is the most pervasive, this is the most frustrating to me. It’s frustrating to me, because most of the people who use it, (the Christians who were raised to believe the Bible is the Word of God) are incapable of understanding why I question it. Because they never did.

The misunderstanding of the burden of proof is one of the biggest reasons logical arguments with theists fail. The person making the claim has the burden of proof. That’s how it works. It’s your job to prove your point, not their job to prove you wrong. If you can’t defend your argument with proof, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re wrong, but it does mean that there’s no reason to believe you.

Welcome to another edition of Bad Arguments. Today’s topic is Personal Incredulity, which is a subset of the the logical fallacy, Argumentum ad Ignorantiam (Argument from Ignorance). This is usually phrased as, “Well how else can you explain (insert topic that isn’t understood by the person)?”

Over the last few years, I’ve really started studying apologetics. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, “apologetics” is the discipline of defending a position, usually, religious positions. Anytime you hear someone defend or give a reason for their faith, that is called apologetics. This is a practice that has gone back as long as… well as long as people have defended their opinions. In general, and for this article, I’m limiting it to the defense of religious beliefs. Actually, I’m going to limit it even further, and talk about one argument, Pascal’s Wager.

I love this question. I see it a lot from creationists. To them, it’s the ace up their sleeve or the 8 ball in the corner pocket. They expect that someone who understands evolution will see that question, and think, “Wow. I never thought of that. Evolution must be wrong.” When in reality, the smart person just shakes their head and laughs.