Tag Archives: logical fallacies

The nirvana fallacy: An imperfect solution is often better than no solution

In this post, I want to briefly explain and discuss a logical blunder known commonly as the “nirvana fallacy.” This fallacy occurs when you suggest either that a solution should not be used because it is imperfect or that a … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming, GMO, Rules of Logic, Vaccines/Alternative Medicine | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Global warming isn’t natural, and here’s how we know

The cornerstone argument of climate change deniers is that our current warming is just a natural cycle, and this claim is usually accompanied by the statement, “the planet has warmed naturally before.” This line of reasoning is, however, seriously flawed … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming | Tagged , , , , , , , | 37 Comments

Dying the way that nature intended: Appeal to nature fallacies

The idea that nature has our best interest in mind is prevalent throughout the anti-science movement. For example, it is common to hear people say, “I’m not going to vaccinate, because I want my children to build immunity naturally, the … Continue reading

Posted in Rules of Logic, Vaccines/Alternative Medicine | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

The genetic fallacy: When is it okay to criticize a source?

Last week, I wrote a post on the hierarchy of scientific evidence which included the figure to the right. In that post, I explained why some types of scientific papers produced more robust results than others. Some people, however, took … Continue reading

Posted in Rules of Logic | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

5 bad arguments against the influenza vaccine

I spend a lot of time on this blog debunking bad anti-vaccine arguments (for example here and here). Nevertheless, logically invalid anti-vaxxer nonsense continues to rear its ugly head. Therefore, in this post I am going to focus specifically on … Continue reading

Posted in Vaccines/Alternative Medicine | Tagged , , | 5 Comments