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Fallacy Examples
Compiled examples from all table groups.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Creationist Ken Ham Says Aliens Are Going To Hell | Strawman |
| If we relax gun laws murderers will run rampant! | Strawman |
| “If you don’t like Disney World, then you must hate everything happy.” | Strawman, False Dilemma |
| "Yes, I do believe that all drunk drivers should go to prison, but your honor, he is my son! He is a good boy who just made a mistake!" | Special Pleading |
| Mike and Barbara share an apartment. Mike says they agreed to clean up their own messes. Barbara says that if the mud she tracked in bothers him that much, HE should clean it up. | Special Pleading |
| Jane and Sue share a dorm room. Jane tells Sue to turn the stereo off so she can nap. Sue asks if she's exhausted or something; Jane is not, she just feels like napping, which is 'more important' than the stereo music Sue feels like playing. | Special Pleading |
| "I'm a Christian, and Christians don't steal, so I clearly didn't steal this in spite of the fact that it is in my possession. Your witness is mistaken." | Special Pleading |
| Chocolate is healthy because it's good for you. | Circular Reasoning (Begging the Question) |
| "You need a great coach to win a Super Bowl; a great coach is one who has won a Super bowl." | Circular Reasoning (Begging the Question) |
| Interviewer: "Your resume looks impressive but I need another reference." Bill: "Jill can give me a good reference." Interviewer: "Good. But how do I know that Jill is trustworthy?" Bill: "Certainly. I can vouch for her." | Circular Reasoning (Begging the Question) |
| Prosecutor to Defendant: So, how did you feel when you killed your wife? | Circular Reasoning (Begging the Question) |
| The belief in God is universal. After all, everyone believes in God. | Circular Reasoning (Begging the Question) |
| "When will you stop pretending to be stupid?" | Loaded Question |
| Does your girlfriend know about your drinking problem? | Loaded Question |
| Do your parents know you are failing Algebra? | Loaded Question |
| How many school shootings should we tolerate before we change the gun laws? | Loaded Question |
| "But officer, the sign said it was fine! See, 'Fine for parking'." | Equivocation |
| Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too. | Equivocation |
| We’ve always had a bonfire on Thursday, so we should always have a bonfire on Thursdays. | Is/Ought |
| "I thought you were a good person, but you weren’t at church today." | False dilemma |
| Either 1 + 1 = 4 or 1 + 1 = 12. If it isn’t 4, then it’s 12. | False dilemma |
| "You're just a Christian because you like the idea of an all-powerful God watching over you." | Psychogenetic |
| Atheists only deny the existence of God because they're angry at him. | Psychogenetic |
| The scientist is gay, so his research on gay relationships is biased. | Psychogenetic |
| The two weightlifters I have met took steroids; therefore, all weightlifters take steroids. | Hasty Generalization |
| Smith decided to study abroad at Ohio State University. Having never been to the US before in his life, he writes to his English family that American squirrels are white-- because the first squirrels he saw in America were two albinos. | Hasty Generalization |
| Sam was just riding her bike in her Maine hometown when a station wagon tried to force her off the road, yelling at her to "get on the sidewalk where you belong!" Sam saw that the car has Ohio plates and concluded that all Ohio drivers are jerks. | Hasty Generalization |
| My father smoked four packs of cigarettes a day since he was 14, and lived until age 69. Therefore, smoking really isn’t that bad. | Hasty Generalization |
| "But professor, I got all these facts from some program I saw on TV once!" | Anonymous Authority |
| I had this book that proved that leprechauns are real and have been empirically verified by scientists, but I lost it. I forgot the name of it as well -- and who the author was. | Anonymous Authority |
| My fifth grade teacher once told me that girls will go crazy for boys if they learn how to dance. Therefore, if you want to make the ladies go crazy for you, learn to dance. | Appeal to Authority |
| The pope says that priests can turn the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The pope isn’t a liar, therefore the priests can really do this. | Appeal to Authority |
| "The preacher said that not tithing is like stealing from God." "I looked him up; he bought his seminary diploma over the internet. That's just his opinion." | Appeal to Authority |
| The 13.7 billion year-old universe is a big conspiracy. I read this article once where these notable scientists found strong evidence that the universe was created 6000 years ago, but because of losing their jobs, they were forced to keep quiet! | Anonymous Authority |
| I dyed my hair, so you should too! (ex. fact: damaged hair) | Fallacy of Exclusion |
| Anti-gun laws will prevent mass shootings! (ex. fact: criminals are lawbreakers.) | Fallacy of Exclusion |
| "My political candidate gives 10% of his income to the needy!" Ex. fact: the 10% of his income goes to needy prostitutes in exchange for services. | Fallacy of Exclusion |
| Employer: It says here on your resume that you are a hard worker, you pay attention to detail, and you don’t mind working long hours. (Ex. fact: employee was an ineffectual micromanager who had no respect for his colleagues.) | Fallacy of Exclusion |
| The Leafs will probably win this game because they’ve won 9 out of their last 10 games. (Ex. fact: 8 of the Leaf’s wins came over last place teams, and today they are playing the first place team.) | Fallacy of Exclusion |
| "My client pleads not guilty of copyright violation, on the grounds that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." | Cliche Thinking |
| When asked why he didn't try to get out of his dead-end job, Bob said, "Good things come to those who wait." | Cliche Thinking |
| It’s not a religion; it is a relationship. | Cliche Thinking |
| "You can't fire me in an attempt to get rid of the bottom 10%, because there will always be a bottom 10%. Once there are fewer than ten engineers, you will have to start firing body parts instead of people!" | Reductive Fallacy |
| "If I give you $5 today then I'll have to give you $5 tomorrow, and then I'll be out $5 a day for the rest of my life." | Reductive Fallacy |
| "The whole idea of God is a silly and destructive superstition people believed in before the Enlightenment." | Chronological Snobbery |
| Why must we accept medieval art as having any value when it emerged from the same period in which people burned witches and believed in fairies? | Chronological Snobbery |
| The truth is that all religions were simply made up by ancient peasants that didn’t have the science and facts we do today and just took a guess based on nothing which is that a ghost with magical powers created everything. | Chronological Snobbery |
| Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong." Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest-- and you're a lackey to the Pope, so I can't believe what you say." | Argument to the Man (Ad Hominem) |
| George is not a biologist and has no training in biology. Therefore, his opinions about what is or is not possible with regards to biology do not have a lot of credibility. | Argument to the Man (Ad Hominem) |
| Most people believe in a God or a "higher power", therefore, God or a higher power must exist. | Appeal to the People |
| "Evolution is scientific fact. Everyone knows that." | Appeal to the People |
| I read the other day that most people really like the new gun control laws, I was sort of suspicious of them but I guess if most people like them, then they must be good. | Appeal to the People |
| "Everyone has psychic abilities-- they just don't know they're there." | Appeal to Ignorance |
| If there really were a large and unusual type of animal in Loch Ness, then we would have undeniable evidence of it by now. | Appeal to Ignorance |
| I thought I had every reason to think I was doing fine leading the group; no one complained. | Appeal to Ignorance |
| "Evolution says that we descended from the apes, but I've never heard of any chimpanzees or gorillas having human babies. If it had ever happened, the newspapers would have reported it. So that just proves that this whole evolution theory is wrong." | Fallacy of Extension |
| Christians hate science. | Fallacy of Extension |
| Christians (who don't accept evolution) are ignorant of science. | Fallacy of Extension |
| Nothing is more important than life. Holes in doughnuts are nothing. Therefore, holes in doughnuts are more important than life. | Language Tricks, Equivocation |
| "It is therefore to be hoped that you will undertake the creation of the necessary administrative modalities so as to ensure the provision to recipient entities of requisite alimentary sustenance. " | Language Tricks, Prestige Jargon |
| A man is believes he is dead, so the doctor convinces him that dead men don't bleed. When he agrees with the fact, the doctor sticks him with a needle. The man looks at his blood and says, "Well, what do you know? Dead men do bleed." | Ultimate Fallacy |
| "If you can prove God to me, I will believe Him less." | Ultimate Fallacy |
| "Senator Jones says that we should not fund the attack submarine program. I disagree entirely. I can't understand why he wants to leave us defenseless like that." | Strawman, Fallacy of Extension |
| "All the other moms are letting my friends watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre III!" | Is/Ought, Appeal to the People |
Created by:
Compulsive Anxiety
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