What's the single most common fallacy committed by atheists?

Question

Bill: "Committed" is the verb. Similarly, one may commit a crime but "crime" is not a verb.

Answer 1

Pick one that you have ever experienced. I dare you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Be careful, because I have seen a few of these on both sides in this forum.
You all are guilty of this one...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance

Somebody reference a real fallacy!!!!

Answer 2

Actually a fallacy is a fault associated with a way of thinking. It isn't something committed. It's a false premise, not an action lol.

I don't have any fallacious thinkings when it comes to theism because I don't try to either think for anybody else, or persuade anyone else to come over to my side of the fence. Nor do I get into any verbal conflicts about what I happen to think as opposed to what the other person does. Not my business. I just live by the simple rule of not getting up in anybody else's face with MY beliefs, and walking away from anyone who attempts to do it to me.

If I am in a situation where I am invited to state something about what I actually think or believe, I say my piece, and then go on my way. Obviously all "believers" feel that the whole atheistic way of thinking is one big fallacy LOL. Hey, no problem there. All they have to do is just go on with their own business, doing whatever it is they feel they need to do in support of whatever it is THEY believe. Surely the most inalienable of all inalienable rights would have to be the right of every single individual to believe whatever way he feels he needs to. I don't believe in trying to get in the way of anyone's right to do that, and certainly I don't think THAT'S any fallacy.

Answer 3

Hello,

I'll stick to technicalities here. While many of atheists are good debaters, quite a few fall into the fallacies of :

1) Hasty Generalization - the most common!

Some others I have noticed which are sometimes number one:

2) Appeal to the wrong authority. (especially regarding figures from wars and religious conflicts)

3) Ad hominem (attacking the person instead of the argument)

4) Straw Man (Present a misrepresentation of the opponent's position, refute it, and pretend that the opponent's actual position has been refuted.

5) Post Hoc (false cause fallacy)

6) Slippery Slope


That said, theists also walk into several fallacies as well but I stick with this question,

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 4

The first three or so answers are a great example of a common fallacy committed by atheists. And I don't mean what they use as an example, I mean they are committing the fallacy in their answers.

Also, the straw man fallacy is rampant on R&S, and it doesn't just happen with Christians if you catch my drift.

Answer 5

Beleiving the absense of evidence is evidence of absense. However since this argument could also be used to justify loads of other crap anyone might argue they should beleive in, it is not that bad ( sort of like induction, just cause the sun has risen for 4 billion years doesn't mean it will tommarow but it is a pretty good bet, becuase there is no eividence of god doesn' mean he doesn't exist, but it is a pretty good bet.)
Agnosticism is the rational choice, but atheists still have it all over theists.

Answer 6

Back in my agnostic days I think mine was to assume that all Christians were like the people in the church where I grew up. If God equaled the god they preached, this was a god that I wanted nothing to do with, if indeed he existed.

I suppose I was guilty of stereotyping and making assumptions without a thorough investigation.

Thankfully, God has forgiven me.

Answer 7

Believing that reading the Bible and *knowing* it are the same thing. I have read the Bible and I know what the words say, but really *knowing* the meaning of it all takes a desire to understand that you can't achieve if your heart is hardened to its meaning.

That's why it seems so contradictory and hypocritical to so many atheists who only take it at face value. I totally get where they're coming from if you read it only to prove a point.

Answer 8

I didn't know free thinking was a fallacy, oops. =P Guess I better reserve my spot in Hell before all the good one's are taken. Don't wanna get stuck next to George Bush or something...

Answer 9

Straw Man
Relativist Fallacy
Guilt by Association
Appeal to ridicule

take your pick

Answer 10

Celebrating Christmas.