Logical Fallacies

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw3Ea9kQsa0

Voltaire said it best:  “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

            Now let me clarify right off the bat.  Am I asking anyone to believe it on this basis?  No.  All I’m saying is that I believe it, and I’m borrowing from him because I have yet to conceive of any better way to say it.  Believe it or don’t.  But know that I believe it.  I believe quite firmly that when human reasoning can be manipulated, human action can also be manipulated on a societal scale.  Those with the power to persuade you to believe absurd things likewise wield the power to cause you to do almost anything; the power to control your actions.  Herein lies despotism.

            To borrow more rhetoric, fools and their money are soon parted.  If someone stands to gain from getting you to believe something absurd, there’s a chance he or she will not draw the line at duplicity to make it happen.  I think that, surely, you will all agree with me, that there do not exist conditions under which any of us can afford to be fools with our money, but especially not now.

            The despot, the demagogue, the con artist delights at the discovery of a community or society rife with sophistry, because a society which accepts one absurdity is easily persuaded to accept others.  Such are conditions under which he or she can make a very comfortable, sometimes downright luxurious living without doing any real work.

            In all honesty, this much on its own I probably would not have a problem with.  I can live with dishonesty.  I can even live with dishonesty for profit.  But when dishonesty of some occurs to the detriment of others, harms others, then I take issue.

            Unfortunately, as long as such a practice is effective as a means of profit, it will continue to abound.  Therefore, in the interests of freedom, justice, and truth, we each have a vested interest in learning how to identify sophistry, absurdity, and other forms of dupery.

            Do I take issue with religion?  Yes.  Why?  Because it rests on a foundation of absurdity.  In all honesty, though, I find myself in disagreement with many an atheist, rationalist, skeptic, and freethinker on one key point: religion is not the root of all injustice.  No one thing can be the root of all injustice.  No one thing can be the root of all anything.  Sophistry abounds within religion, but also in many other places.

            And so I commence this series of videos on the subject of logical fallacies as I come to them. Watch this channel.