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Spot the Fallacy

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Petitio principii (begging the question). 'God is behind coincidences.' rests on the assumption that God is behind everything. That requires evidence, but none is presented. (I assume that the good father would not shy away from using his newfound conclusion as evidence of the existence of God as he defined it, thus making a circular argument)

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By Paul Hsieh from NoodleFood,cross-posted by MetaBlog

Can you spot the logical fallacy?

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/uploaded_images/photo-750875.jpg">photo-750872.jpg</a>

(Taken while at a medical conference in Sarasota, FL, 12/9/2009.)

Cross-posted from Metablog

That is not a fallacy, which is a logically erroneous inference. It is an outright absurdity. A statement devoid of meaning.

Bob Kolker

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Not a fallacy, but an absurdity: God involves himself in trivial meaningless day-to-day events ("ZOMG my cat sneezed at the same time as me!"), but can't bother to save that bus full of kids from flying off that cliff.

I agree.. more absurd than anything else.

The statement on the sign is so nonsensical it make blood trickle from my ear.

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Absolutely stupid, but wouldn't a coincidence (if god is behind them) be god showing himself?

But yeah, a statement devoid of meaning lol. And sneezing is more important than the school bus of kids! Haha what a stupid god!

Edited by steckSalathe
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When something appears as a coincidence, the sign tells us that god did it, but chose to remain anonymous. Therefor, when faced with what appears to be a coincidence, we can be sure that god did it - but then he did not remain anonymous - he is identified as the cause.

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I would agree with the previous posters that the sentence is meaningless, but I suppose its author thought it did have a certain meaning, and that it might induce some people to believe in God. But I can't figure out what this message is supposed to be.

My best guess would be: "When things coincide in an unlikely way, it is in fact God that causes them to coincide, he just doesn't let us know he did it." If that's all it says, I don't see how this could make me believe in God if I don't already believe in him.

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How has Christian theology gone so low? How did they go from Pauls Epistle to the Romans, to bumper sticker catch phrases? Apparently quoting from the Bible just doesn't have the same effect it used to, lol.

The phrase here seems to say: what man labels as mere coinsidence, is really the works of god unknown to him. So perhaps the logical fallacy is begging the question?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I suppose it's 'smuggled concept'

"Stolen concept fallacy - (Smuggled concept) Using a concept to support an argument while denying a concept which the supporting concept logically depends on."

The billboard is giving credit to God

Credit logically depends on identity

But the the concept of identity is negated by the concept of anonymity

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1.) "God" doesn't choose. He just knows, right? No choice is necessary. Plus, anything he is choosing over was something he created in the first place and "knows" all outcomes.

2.) "God" can't remain anonymous since many assume his hand in all matters from creation onward.

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