Thank God it’s #FallacyFriday ! Every week, Oliver Diaz-Neda will post a logical fallacy and an example to help you all become better debaters, persuaders and rational thinkers. What is a logical fallacy? It is defined as – a flaw in the structure of an argument which renders the argument invalid.
Today’s fallacy
Burden of Proof
In a reasonable discussion, the person making a claim is responsible for proving their assertion. Burden of proof fallacies occur when a debater makes a claim without supporting proof, challenges their opponent to disprove it, and then uses the inability to disprove their claim as evidence to reassert the validity of their claim.
Example
Jake
Barack Obama is a Muslim and a Kenyan, not a God fearing U.S citizen. I can’t wait till Trump is President!
Sarah
Jake, are you kidding me right now? This was long disproven; he released his long form birth certificate and has been going to a christian church for decades.
Jake
Can you prove that the birth certificate was not a fake? I have heard that it is. He is a Muslim, he is just good at hiding it. Can you prove he is not?!
Sarah
I take the certificate at face value… it was released by the proper authorities in Hawaii, where he was born. I can’t prove he is not a muslim… besides the fact that he has been going to a church his whole adult life.
Jake
Exactly! You are a sheep who believes any government agency, even though they routinely cover things up, like the President’s real birth place. And of course you can’t prove he is not a Muslim, because he is!
Jake unambiguously has no factual evidence to back his assertion. When Sarah challenges those assertions, but is unable to prove a negative – which is technically impossible – Jake uses her inability as proof enough to validate his own claim. That is akin to asking someone to disprove Santa Clause and using their failure to do so as proof of his existence. Don’t be like Jake. Jake is a troll.
