Posted: Apr 14, 2010 3:38 pm
rainbow wrote:Spearthrower wrote:
Qualified scientists and a major peer reviewed scientific journal disagree with you.
Now I wonder who to believe?
Oh Dear, falling back onto your Appeal to Authority fallacy?
No, just giving credit where it's due - some people have a clue, some people don't.
And I already told you that it is not necessarily a fallacy, but then you aren't interested in what other people say, are you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority
On the other hand, arguments from authority are an important part of informal logic. Since we cannot have expert knowledge of many subjects, we often rely on the judgments of those who do. There is no fallacy involved in simply arguing that the assertion made by an authority is true. The fallacy only arises when it is claimed or implied that the authority is infallible in principle and can hence be exempted from criticism.