Praying for lower gas prices: An invitation to fallacious reasoning

Yes, people are once again praying for lower gas prices.

If gas prices go down following the prayers, should the prayers be credited for the lower prices? This is Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc in action: “After this, therefore because of this.” The presence of rain after I do a rain dance does not indicate that the rain fell due to my special dance. Thus, the temporal succession of events does not necessarily establish a causal connection between them.

I went to church a two weeks ago. Then gas prices went up. Did gas prices rise due to my church attendence? Well, ok, I didn’t really go to church two weeks ago. But I think you get the point.

A Visual Hierarchy of Disagreements in Argumentation

As is graphically represented on the CreateDebate blog, here is Paul Graham’s hierarchy of disagreement. We’ll see in later posts that name-calling tactics are often used by those who cannot logically refute an argument. Such approaches are often found in discussions on race, unfortunately. For example, if a person presents an argument against affirmative action, he/she might be labeled as a racist. While name-calling is in no way an elenchus for the speaker’s argument, one will still encounter it frequently.