In which Wolf opens day 17's door... Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/aI8X5QK0MKA
Welcome to the Beware of Wolf Advent Calendar of Bad Thinking. To celebrate the holidays, I'm counting down the days until Christmas with a common type of bad thinking each day, described in 60 seconds. This holiday season, give the gift of good thinking by sharing these videos with your friends!
Today is Day 17: "The Argument from Incredulity"
If we try to base our beliefs on what is true, then we might be surprised when people get it exactly backwards by saying that since they don't believe it, it must therefore be false, and going on to chalk it up to "common sense." That's the Argument from Incredulity.
For example, let's say you hear a story about a man who can fly. You might think, "That's impossible! Everyone knows people can't fly!" But it might be possible that the man can fly because he's invented a jetpack or something.
It's also common to hear people claim that evolution by natural selection must be false because they can't believe that the diversity and complexity of life could arise from natural causes alone. But many strong lines of evidence have shown that tiny steps over billions of years have indeed added up to big changes in both the type and diversity of species.
Just because something is hard to believe doesn't by itself make it false. People often use "common sense" as the basis for their beliefs because it's easier than doing research. But if you want to think better, you need to be willing to question your assumptions and look for evidence.
When evaluating incredible claims, the person making the claim needs to provide strong evidence, but the person questioning the claim also needs to be willing to evaluate the evidence fairly and be open to the possibility that it might be true.
Happy Holidays!