Can You Spot The Logical Fallacies In Advertising?

"I don't want to shock anyone, but here's a piece of frightful news: Sometimes products are marketed using fallacious logic. That's different from lying about your product; marketing with logical fallacies is a way to make your product sound great by appealing to our natural tendencies to be susceptible to fallacious logic. Tell us something about your product that sounds persuasive — regardless of whether it's actually a real merit or not — and we get all impressed. Today we're going to look at the practice of spotting logical fallacies in the marketing of products, and we might even try doing a little of it ourselves."

Click on the link below for an interesting podcast looking at the psychological manipulations being used by virtually all advertisers: 

Marketing with Logical Fallacies

A Clear And Unbiased Look At The Argument From Fine-Tuning

 "In this video, I explain how the argument that the universe is fine-tuned for life works, why it's wrong, how the mistake happens, and what that means for the existence of god and the multiverse."

Was the universe made for us?

Whataboutism and Christianity

"Some of the terms we use to describe political rhetoric are as old as politics itself (see ad hominem attacks, or such devices as synecdoche, metonymy, or zeugma). Others are more recent additions, driven by the evolution of the news cycle (like fake news and dog whistles).

"But hey, aren’t we ignoring a bigger subject here? How can we talk about rhetorical devices and not mention whataboutism?

" - - - it’s essentially a reversal of accusation, arguing that an opponent is guilty of an offense just as egregious or worse than what the original party was accused of doing, however unconnected the offenses may be.

" - - - Rhetoricians generally consider it to be a form of tu quoque, which means "you too" in Latin and involves charging your accuser with whatever it is you've just been accused of rather than refuting the truth of the accusation made against you. Tu quoque is considered to be a logical fallacy because whether or not the original accuser is likewise guilty of an offense has no bearing on the truth value of the original accusation." (link)

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Why am I discussing this term? Christian apologists throw it at skeptics when discussing the reliability of the Bible as a historical source. Here is a link comparing the evidence of the Jesus in the Bible and other ancient historical individuals. Please remember that there are no primary sources in support of the Bible as history. When you add in the supernatural claims, the bar is high indeed for acceptance of the Bible as history.

Fallacies Of Esoteric (Alternative) Medicine

"The realm of Esoteric Medicine (EM) is riddled with fallacies which confuse patients and consumers and are used regularly to undermine critical thinking and promote the use of EM. Here I have selected just 7 which, in my view, are both prevalent and important." (link)

• Appeal to popularity and appeal to authority

• Post hoc fallacy

• Even if it is just a placebo, it helps patients

• Appeal to tradition

• EM is ethical

• EM cannot be scientifically tested

• EM is natural and hence harmless

Christianity IS Special Pleading

The term "Special Pleading" means to cite something as an exception to a general or universal principle without justifying the special exception (Double Standard). All religions use this informal fallacy to one degree or another because each claims that they have "The Truth" and all other religions are not like them. In the US, Christianity is the most prominent example of turning a blind eye to this phenomenon. Below are links debunking Christianity's claim that it is a special religion:

Religion in The Roman World

Many religions had Messiahs 

Overlapping histories of religions

The Common Origin of the World's Major Religions

The Mystery Religions and Christianity

The "Best" Documentation For Miracles Debunked

The Lead Apologist for Catholic Answers, the top Catholic apologetics media in the USA, was asked on a recent podcast to provide the best resource in support of miracles. He quickly said, THIS book:

Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Craig Keener. Below is a 9-part review of the claims made in this extensive book:

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-1/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-2/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-3/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-4/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-5/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-6/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-7/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-8/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/a-review-of-craig-keeners-miracles-part-9/

https://lutherwasnotbornagaincom.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/jesus-ignores-the-prayers-of-16000-starving-children-each-and-every-day-but-he-healed-your-injured-leg-praise-jesus/

Religion Is A Mind Disease

"Growing up in church impairs your ability to ask better questions and detect logical inconsistencies in the answers you get, and on a large enough scale that has far-reaching consequences for the fate of a nation, and maybe even the world. You are taught from birth to accept so many incompatible ideas that eventually it breaks your irony meter."

How Faith Breaks Your Thinker

The Psychology of Religion

How To Marginalize Organized Religion

All religions are based on claims unsupported by evidence.  The two biggest arguments that organized religions use to persuade people to join are The Argument From Authority and The Argument From Revelation.  Since both of these are fallacious arguments, getting the faithful to understand how these two false pillars are supporting their religion is a major key in marginalizing religion in society.