Top 20 Logical Fallacies (in alphabetical order) Ad hominem 1.

Jack: If she wants to go, I think you should let her go. Jill: Why do you say that? You have never loved anyone before so you do not know how it feels like to lose someone. Ad ignorantiam Time travel does not exist. No one has ever travelled in the past or in the future, right?" Argument from authority 1. Jack: I am handsome. Jill: Why do you say that? Jack: Because my mom told me so. Jill: And you believed her, of course. Argument from final Consequences In order for us to exist, the universe has to be very fine-tuned in order for that to happen, therefore God (or an Intelligence) was the one that created it. Argument from Personal Incredulity Humans cant possibly be responsible for global warming because Earth is too big of a system for us to have that great an effect on it. Confusing currently unexplained with unexplainable

False Continuum The more money we spend on public schools, the better off our children will be. The less we spend, the worse off they'll be. The false continuum is that it is possible to make schools better by spending less money more efficiently. More is not necessarily better.

False Dichotomy "If you're not with us, you're against us." Inconsistency "All general claims have exceptions." Non-Sequitur "Since Egyptians did so much excavation to construct the pyramids, they were well versed in paleontology." Post-hoc ergo propter hoc "The Soviet Union collapsed after instituting state atheism. Therefore we must avoid atheism for the same reasons." Reductio ad absurdum Slippery Slope "If we legalize marijuana, then more people would start to take crack and heroin, and we'd have to legalize those too. Before long we'd have a nation full of drug-addicts on welfare. Therefore we cannot legalize marijuana." Special pleading, or ad-hoc reasoning Straw Man "To be an atheist, you have to believe with absolute certainty that there is no God. In order to convince yourself with absolute certainty, you must examine all the Universe and all the places where God could possibly be. Since you obviously haven't, your position is indefensible." Tautology Parent: Its bed time, go to bed. Child: Why? Parent: Because I said so. The Moving Goalpost opponents of evolutionary theory point to gaps in the fossil record, claiming that evolutionary lines don't really connect because the record is incomplete. "Show us one fossil of a part-fish, part frog, and we'll be satisfied," they cry. If that evolutionary gap is filled with a new fossil, deniers now point to the two new gaps on either side of the new specimen. This prospect of these

endless, shrinking targets helped to inspire my snail shell dartboard. Standards of acceptance shrink so that sacred ideas don't have to. Tu quoque Parent: Whats wrong with you? You always come home late! Child: Whats wrong with me? You always come home late too! Unstated Major Premise If we label foods with their cholesterol content, Americans' will make healthier food choices.