Time to learn something new this morning, folks, and it’ll be especially germane during the fifteen days ahead of us. I was prompted to write this post based on a comment left by one of you yesterday.
There is a common logical fallacy known as the False Dilemma. You can read all about it with the hyperlink provided but allow me a simple example I just made up: let’s say the good people of the U.S. Government required that every citizen declare whether they were a Catholic or an Atheist.
Obedient citizen that I am, I would come before the bureaucrat, and he would ask, “So, Mr. Knight, are you a Catholic?” to which my honest answer would be “No.” He may then reply, “Ah, got it. So, you’re a damned atheist. Thank you for your time.“
Given the choice between A or B, if I refute A, the answer surely must be B, would it not? Of course not. Maybe I’m a Buddhist, or a Methodist, or a Sikh, or maybe I’m the kind who can’t even make up his mind what to have at a restaurant and I’m an agnostic. It could be any of thousands of choices. But the universe certainly isn’t confined to A or B.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Getty_false_dilemma-534177164-585370515f9b586e02af70f1.jpg)
