Logic Laws and Flaws

Christian thinkers yield and appeal to logic because it reflects God’s orderly nature. The apostle Paul, making his defense in chains before a Roman governor and a Jewish king, said, "I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak words of truth and reason. For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:25-26).

Logic has basically 3 laws that are foundational to all reason and thinking:

1.   The Law of Identity: A is A.  
   Example: God is God, not something else.

2.   The Law of Non-Contradiction: A is not non-A.  
   Example: God cannot be both personal (having mind, emotions, and will) and impersonal (not personal, like a force).

3.   The Law of the Excluded Middle: Either A or non-A.
   Example: God either exists or does not exist. There is no other alternative.

The basic laws of logic are neither arbitrary inventions of God, nor principles that exist completely outside God’s being. They are not exactly like the laws of nature. God may violate the laws of nature (for example, suspend gravity), but He cannot violate the laws of logic because those laws reflect God’s own nature. Indeed, some scholars think the beginning of John’s Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word (Greek, logos)" is best translated, "In the beginning was Logic (a divine, rational mind)." For example, even God cannot exist and not exist at the same time, and even God cannot validly believe that red is both a color and not a color. When people say that God need not behave logically, they are using the term in a loose sense to mean "the sensible thing from my point of view." Often God does not act in ways that people understand or would do in the same circumstances. But God never behaves illogically. He does not violate in His being or thoughts the fundamental laws of logic.

Summary of Logical Fallacies (Logic Flaws)  

1. Argumentum ad hominem = argument directed at a person rather than the idea being discussed. For example, a person saying: "How can anyone take Ronald Reagan seriously as a president? He was an actor!" It is foolish to evaluate any leader, past or present,  based only on a past occupation. Other factors need to be considered, such as character and achievements. Argumentum ad hominem is almost always against a person. Its logical opposite, Argumentum pro homine, speaks favorably of a person, but makes the same logical mistake. For example, "Ronald Reagan was such a fine actor, he must have been a wonderful president."

2. Argumentum ad ignorantiam = argument to ignorance or lack of proof so far. For example: "Lots of people have taken this drug and it has not hurt them!" Are you sure about that? Just because you do not know does not mean nothing has happened. You need more proof.

3. Argumentum ad logicam = argument to so-called logic, but what is actually invalid proof. For example: "Lots of people have taken this drug and the drug manufacturer’s study proves it is perfectly safe," neglecting to mention that the manufacturer is naturally biased in its own favor and did not conduct its study in an objective way, such as a double-blind study. Sound evidence from an impartial source is needed. 

4. Argumentum ad misericordiam = argument or appeal to pity only, ignoring other relevant facts. For example: "We must outlaw hunting so animals will not suffer!" What about hunters and their families suffering from hunger? 

5. Argumentum ad nauseam = argument to the point of nausea by repetition. For example: People who keep repeating, "But children need their milk!" every time they hear of even a grown child who does not drink milk regularly, no matter what you say—whether lactose intolerance or excessive calories or protein is an issue. Of course, it is not a fallacy to state the truth again and again; what is wrong is to expect repetition alone to substitute for logical proof. 

6. Argumentum ad numerum = argument or appeal to numbers only. For example: "This has to be right because so many people are doing it!" Oh really? Were the Nazis right because so many people voted for them? 

7. Argumentum ad populum = argument or appeal to  popular people. For example: "The coolest people like this so it must be good!" But what does cool really mean, who defines it, and who says that group of people is the ultimate authority? Sometimes bad people become popular. That doesn't make them good.

8. Argumentum ad verecundiam = argument or appeal to unsuitable authority. For example: "Socialism must be the best form of government because Albert Einstein said so!" Einstein was an authority on physics, not politics, but pride can tempt any authority figure to pontificate beyond what he or she should, and foolish hero worship can tempt the public to try to demand that their authorities pontificate like that. 

9. Broken Window fallacy = the fallacy that breaking windows, waging war, and other destructive acts actually benefit society by providing jobs for people repairing windows, making weapons, patching up war wounds and the like. But who wants to be the one having their window broken, their relatives slaughtered, or walking around with an artificial limb—if able to walk at all? Such a society would be parasitic and could not exist for long without producing something good worth producing. Going back to that broken window, the store owner who replaces it now is back to where he or she started before the vandalism. The money he could have spent on something to benefit the economy is now lost for that purpose.

10. Circulus in demonstrando (circular reasoning)/ Petitio principii (begging the question). For example: "I have a right to say what I want so you should not try to silence me." Here is the question begging to be proved rather than merely asserted:  Is having a right to X the same as other people having an obligation to allow you to have X? That is like saying X is true because X is true, but not saying why it is true. 

11. Complex question = a loaded question with a built-in assumption. For example: "Have you stopped beating your cat?" is valid only if the thing presumed true (cat beating) has been established. 

12. Cum hoc ergo propter hoc = "with this, therefore that follows" (Cum hoc for short)/mistaking correlation for causation. For example: "President Clinton had great economic policies; just look at how well the economy did when he was in office!" Perhaps that was because of the policies of the president before him. More proof is needed. 

13. Dicto simpliciter = "simple statement"/Sweeping generalization/Stereotyping. For example: "Teenagers are younger than adults and therefore do not have the maturity to make important decisions."  Teenagers are younger than adults by definition, but that does not mean they are incapable of making important decisions.  The biblical examples of Joseph, Daniel, and Mary the mother of Jesus show that they can. 

14. Equivocation = "to call by the same name" or to use a word that has different meanings but gloss over which meaning is intended. For example: "Women have no need to be afraid of man-eating sharks!" Yes, they do since "man" in that sentence means humans, not just males. C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain gives a serious example of the equivocation fallacy:  "'If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either the goodness, or power, or both.'  This is the problem of pain, in its simplest form. The possibility of answering it depends on showing that the terms 'good' and 'almighty', and perhaps also the term 'happy', are equivocal." 

15. False Analogy = inappropriate word picture or illustration. For example: "What is the big deal about the early American pioneers killing natives to settle the West? After all, you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs." But making an omelet has nothing to do with killing and stealing!

16. False Dilemma =  making an either/or statement when there are other options. For example: "Either you buy a large car and watch it guzzle away your paycheck, or you buy a small car and risk being killed in an accident." Really? Are big cars that use lots of gas and dangerous little cars the only cars available? Take the time to find out what your options truly are.

17. False Equivalence = making an argument or claim in which two opposing arguments are made to be logically equivalent when in fact they are not. The confusion comes from one shared characteristic between two or more items of comparison in the argument that is way off in the order of magnitude, oversimplified, or just that important additional factors have been ignored. An apple and orange are both fruits, but it would be wrong to assert they are just the same. An oil stain and an oil spill both involve oil, but one is much more serious than the other.

18. Naturalistic fallacy = assuming nature or whatever is natural is always morally good; trying to bridge the is-ought gap. For example: "Because many species of animals have multiple mates, so should we humans!" Just because, in a fallen world, some species have multiple mates does not mean that humans ought to, especially since our Creator has clearly told us to be faithful for life to one’s husband or wife.  

19. Non sequitur = "it does not follow"/missing steps in the chain of reason. For example: "Thousands of people have seen lights in the night sky that they could not identify. The existence of life on other planets is fast becoming certainty!" The second sentence needs more proof than what the first sentence states. 

20. Post hoc ergo propter hoc = "after this, therefore that follows" (Post hoc for short)/assuming A led to B because A happened first. For example: "The Patriots always win when I put on my lucky red shirt before they play!" Twice in 10 years maybe, but do you really think the Patriots would always win if you always kept your red shirt on?

21. Red herring = a diversion, introducing emotional facts to distract from the issue at hand. For example: "It is claimed that welfare dependency leads to higher crime rates, but how are poor people supposed to keep a roof over their heads without our help?" It is important to help poor people with the necessities of life, but that does not refute the claim that welfare leads to crime. Not all red herrings are bad, however. Notice the red herring that rescued the apostle Paul from evil men who intended to kill him: "When Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out before the Sanhedrin, 'Men and Brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!' When he said this, an argument arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For Sadducees say that there is no resurrection—and no angel or spirit, but the Pharisees confess both" (Acts 23:6-8). Paul, at that point, was taken away by the Romans into protective custody. 

22. Slanting = saying something that is true, but in a misleading way for emotional effect. For example: "The government keeps pouring money into the defense industry" or "The government naturally spends some money on the defense industry." The first sounds extravagant and wasteful; the second sounds minimal. Precise language and numbers are required to make an intelligent evaluation of the issue at hand.

23. Slippery slope = saying one thing inevitably leads to another when it does not (but sometimes it does). A funny example of the slippery-slope fallacy is in the famous musical Music Man, where a con man tries to unload a bunch of musical instruments on an unsuspecting town by asserting, "Trouble, oh we got trouble, right here in River City!  With a capital T, that rhymes with P, and that stands for Pool (as in pool tables).  We gotta figure a way to keep the young ones moral after school!"  He cons the morality-conscious town into believing the only way to keep their teenagers from wasting their time on gaming after school is to get them all into a marching band! A serious example of a true slippery slope is how allowing one group of people to be treated in an inhumane way leads to inhumanity and suffering on a large scale. Think about these famous words from a repentant German pastor (visible in stone at the Boston Holocaust Memorial): "First the Nazis came for the Socialists, but I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, but I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, but I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. And then they came for me, but there was no one left to speak for me." (Martin Niemoller spent 8 years in Nazi concentration camps.) 

24. Straw man = fallacy of presenting an extreme version of someone’s point rather than the actual point. For example: "Those Christians think Jesus is the only way, so they think the rest of us are wrong about everything!" Christians do believe Jesus is the only way of salvation from sin because He said so, and proved His claim in many ways, especially by rising from the dead. The Gospel is the Good News of God’s victory through Jesus Christ over Satan, sin, and death on behalf of His people. That should be the central issue of any Christian’s discussion with a non-Christian about Christ’s exclusivity. However, C.S. Lewis wisely observed in Mere Christianity: "If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through.... When I was an atheist, I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic, there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong, but some...are... nearer being right than others." Be sure to represent people and issues accurately, and expect others to as well. 

25. Tu quoque = "you too"/excusing your flawed logic because you accuse your opponent of using the same flaw. For example: "Christians accuse us evolutionists of making unjustified assertions, but they assert a lot of things, too!" An error is still an error, regardless of who makes it. Do not focus on your opponents; focus on truth. Tu quoque is also known as whataboutism, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as "the technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counter-accusation," originating in the 1990s from the way counter-accusations often take the form of questions introduced by "What about—?"

Logic is an essential tool for the Christian to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) in a humble, respectful way (1 Peter 3:15).

PS. Teachers, it is very easy to make a quiz based on this material to test your students. Try multiple choice,  fill in the blank, true/false, essay, or a combination.

ESTHER+—An Illustrated Summary of Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible by G. Campbell Morgan

"On every page of the God-breathed writings are many thoughts that stretch out like long, clear arms of light across the darkness, discovering things otherwise hidden and illuminating wider areas than those of the immediate context. They are searchlights. I have selected one in each chapter of Scripture, for at least one central thought in every chapter should arrest the mind and affect the life," wrote G. Campbell Morgan, a skilled, wise, warm-hearted Bible teacher who conducted a classic 3-year study called Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible. Here is the fruit of that research—summarized, illustrated, and amplified with useful details—on all 66 books of the Bible.

GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, 

DEUTERONOMY, JOSHUA, JUDGES, RUTH, 

1 SAMUEL, 2 SAMUEL, 1 KINGS,  2 KINGS, 

1 CHRONICLES, 2 CHRONICLES, EZRA, 

NEHEMIAH, ESTHER, JOB, PSALMS, 

PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES, 

SONG OF SOLOMON,  ISAIAH, JEREMIAH,

 LAMENTATIONS, EZEKIEL, DANIEL, 

HOSEA, JOEL, AMOS, OBADIAH, JONAH, 

MICAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, ZEPHANIAH,  

HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, MALACHI,

 MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, JOHN, 

ACTS, ROMANS, 1 CORINTHIANS,

2 CORINTHIANS, GALATIANS, EPHESIANS, 

PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, 1 THESSALONIANS,

2 THESSALONIANS, 1 TIMOTHY,  2 TIMOTHY, TITUS,

PHILEMON, HEBREWS, JAMES, 1 PETER, 2 PETER,

1 JOHN, 2 JOHN, 3 JOHN, JUDE, REVELATION

 

Esther 1:12 "Vashti refused to come." Ezra and Nehemiah tell about Jews who bravely returned to their homeland, while Esther tells of those who remained in the land of their captivity, but were not forgotten by God. It opens with King Ahasuerus celebrating the splendor of his reign throughout Persia to most of the known world at the time. Being "merry with wine" (verse 10), he sent 7 of his officials to escort his queen, Vashti, to his presence so he could display her beauty to his guests. As the highlighted text makes clear, she refused to come. We are not told why, but we are told the effect of Vashti's choice: she humiliated her royal husband, who decided to divorce her. Soon he would be seeking a new wife, and that special woman would prove to be God's choice for delivering the Jewish people from destruction. Esther as a book seems to be a fragment of Persian history, captured and incorporated for sacred purposes.

Esther 2:17 "The king loved Esther.... He set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti." The king's search for a new queen brought many women to his attention, including a lovely one named Esther, an orphan whose late parents were Jewish exiles. Her older cousin Mordecai cared for her like a father, and continued looking after her welfare day by day when she was taken into the king's court. Esther also found favor in the eyes of the king's officials and then before the king himself, who chose her as his new queen. By this time Mordecai was regularly "sitting in the king's gate," which implies he had a court position. While there he overheard a plot against the king's life and promptly reported it to Esther, who told the king in time for the plot to be foiled. Both Esther and Mordecai were now in position to save their people from one of the greatest enemies they would ever face.

Esther 3:15 "The king and Haman sat down to drink." This Haman is introduced to us as an Agagite, the last-mentioned survivor of Israel's ancient foes the Amalekites. Haman had power and cleverness on his side, which led to his being in complete favor with the king, whom he deceived into signing off on a plan to exterminate the Jewish people throughout the king's extensive realm. They settled down to seal the deal with a drink together, but all the while Mordecai and the rest of the Jews were in the hands of God. Although the scheming occurred during the first month, a Persian custom Haman avidly followed was  casting lots (Purim) to determine the most auspicious time to carry out an offensive, which pushed off the extermination plan until the twelfth month—almost a year later. Often we see evil men and women doing strange and inexplicably fooling things from the standpoint of their own purpose. Perhaps Haman thought this delay would make the extermination of the Jewish people all the more complete, but we will see how it gave the necessary time for all the events that worked together to deliver the Jewish people from destruction. Those who fear God and follow Him can always reckon on Him. If they ignore Him in their reckoning, they always find Him sooner or later, to their own undoing. 

Esther 4:14 "Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" News of Haman's bloody plot quickly spread throughout the land to terrify the intended victims and give the executioners time to prepare their fatal thrust. The whole diabolical plan had been cleverly conceived. It seemed there could be no escape from a terrible massacre. Mordecai was overcome with grief, but in his highlighted words to Esther, we discover the one gleam of hope that shone for him amid the prevailing darkness. We do not know whether it was more a wistful hope than the expression of a confident faith, but we do know, like Mordecai, that Esther was a direct link between the king and her people. The custom and law of the court forbade her making a direct approach to the king without his summoning her. Doing so would bring the death penalty unless the king decided to extent his scepter as a sign of approval. Nevertheless, the urgency of the case inspired her to the heroism of making this great venture. Conscious of her need for moral and spiritual strength, she asked her people to fast with her. This portrait of Esther is a singularly fine one. Her saying, "If I perish, I perish" (verse 16) displays a spirit of sacrifice on the highest level. This beautiful woman occupied a grave place of peril at the court of an Eastern despot by no choice of her own, and was willing to step up on behalf of her people in their hour of desperate need. She did it with conscious dependence on God and complete readiness to sacrifice her life if necessary. Esther had certainly come to the kingdom for that time, and was the precise instrument God would use to deliver His people.

Esther 5:13 "All this means nothing to me so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." What an unveiling of Haman's evil heart! At the back of selfish ambition, some stabbing pain forever torments. In this case it was Mordecai remaining at his post, refusing to treat Haman like some kind of idol by groveling at his feet. Haman frankly admitted to his family and friends that nothing satisfied him while this state of things continued. Petty pride and pique were at the root of Haman's fiendish plot against an entire race of people! If it were not for the terrible things that result from such a trivial attitude, we would naturally hold it in contempt or laugh at it. When such envy completely expresses itself, it breaks forth as cruelty, rape, murder, and every other evil thing. Yet all the while that bitter root is a torment to the man or woman in whose heart it dwells. The only cure Haman would seek for his malady of soul was the death of Mordecai, which God would prevent. Haman soothed himself by erecting a gallows to symbolize Mordecai's impending execution, but in the will of God that gallows was not for Mordecai. The more carefully one considers the moral world under the overruling government of God, the more one is constrained to worship Him for His infinite wisdom and precise justice and mercy. Meanwhile, Esther had made her bold venture, and the welcoming outstretched scepter of the king was a sign of God's ultimate rule over that court of earthly pride and pomp.

Esther 6:1 "On that night the king could not sleep." In this chapter we have a night interlude between the erecting of a gallows and the holding of a feast. A sleepless night is a transient matter and almost trivial, yet it has often been a time of revelation and surprise. In the case of Ahasuerus, it was another of the ways God moved forward in protecting His people. To while away its hours, the king commanded that he be read to from his court's records or chronicles. That was a divine choice of reading material, for the part his reader came to was of the assassination plot Mordecai revealed to Esther early in her marriage to the king. Ahasuerus inquired if Mordecai had been rewarded for saving his life, and when learning he had not, determined to get advice on the best way to honor Mordecai. By now it was morning and Haman arrived early, waiting outside the king's chamber to receive permission to execute Mordecai on the new gallows. The king called him in, but Haman got the opposite of his desire: being promptly sent out to confer the highest dignities of the kingdom upon Mordecai! God works out His own high purposes surely and with unerring wisdom. The stage was set for Haman's end to come suddenly, dramatically, and completely.

Esther 7:10 "They hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai." When Haman returned to his home after a humiliating day of being obliged to honor Mordecai, the man he hated most, he was summoned to a feast Queen Esther prepared for him and the king to dine in her presence. He consoled himself with the honor of being invited to such a feast—and with the thought of hanging Mordecai as soon as he could manage on the gallows he passed by on his way to the feast. At that  feast, however, Esther revealed that Haman's plot to exterminate the Jews would kill her and all her people. She pleaded for the astonished king to spare their lives. The king was furious with Haman for endangering his queen, and ordered him executed immediately on the apparatus closest to hand: the gallows Haman himself erected. It was a fierce and terrible retribution, but was characterized by poetic justice. The core of Haman's hatred for Mordecai was his self-centered and self-consuming pride and ambition that extended way beyond Mordecai himself to everyone and everything associated with him. The nets of evil plotting and malicious enterprise swing far out in the tides of human life, but never far enough to enmesh God. He remains beyond them all, and gathering them in the hands of His power, He makes them include the men and women who weave them to destroy others. The very instrument that Haman's brutality prepared for Mordecai is what God chose to employ for Haman's destruction. Not always with the same spectacular visibility or suddenness, but inevitably "the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He frustrates the plans of the peoples" (Psalm 33:10).

Esther 8:16 "The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor." The removal of Haman resulted naturally in the promotion of Mordecai. The peril threatening the Jewish people, however, was not yet by any means thwarted. The royal proclamation had got out that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the Hebrew people should be massacred. According to Persian law, no such royal proclamation could be directly reversed. Some other way had to be discovered if the people were to be saved. Through the intervention of Esther, the king granted permission to Mordecai to send another proclamation under the royal seal allowing the Jews to arm and defend themselves. God brought about the deliverance of His people through ordinary channels, but through the extraordinary method of sending the king's own messengers with haste to urge the Jews to be ready against what would have been the fateful day of their own slaughter by the previous royal proclamation! We can understand, therefore, about the highlighted light, gladness, joy, and honor that the Jewish people experienced when they received this amazing news. Since other people throughout the kingdom recognized this complete reversal as coming from the hand of God, many of them "became Jews" themselves (verse 17). In a distant land and on a dark day, God gave His people an undeniable sign of His watchful care over them that filled their hearts with joy. The value of this story then and now is that it reveals anew the greatness of God's love for His own, and stirs the heart to become one of God's own.

Esther 9:32 "The command of Esther established these customs for Purim." In this chapter we have a full account of what happened on that fateful thirteenth day of the twelfth month. The changed conditions of Haman and Mordecai were revealed that day throughout every province in the kingdom. People who had habitually mistreated the Jews and were looking forward to the opportunity of exterminating them by royal decree now found themselves filling the places they had intended their victims to occupy. Not only were the Jews protected, but also their most implacable enemies were rooted out near and far. It was in remembrance of this great deliverance that the Feast of Purim was established. The thirteenth day of the twelfth month was the day that the lots or Purim Haman tossed back in chapter 3 designated as the optimum time to destroy the Jews. Since God overruled those lots in a big way, the fourteenth and fifteenth days of that month were designated as a joyous new festival of remembrance, appropriately called the Feast of Purim. There was feasting, rejoicing, giving of gifts, and sharing food with the needy while all were reminded of how God delivered His people. At the command of Esther, this happy celebration of remembrance became an annual tradition from that point on. It is a remarkable fact that while there have been breaks in the observances of the other great Jewish feasts, and some practically discontinued, the Feast of Purim has been maintained to this day. Jewish leaders have always regarded the Book of Esther as an exposition of the method by which God rescued His people in a time of peril, even while they chose to live in exile, and so of His unceasing care for them. It has given the Jewish people hope in many dark and desolate days.

Mordecai Was Entrusted with the King's Seal

Esther 10:3 "Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus." This tiny chapter gives us a last glimpse of a particularly fine man. Probably all the experiences Mordecai had of God's protective care molded his character to likewise care for God's people. His elevation in political status as second only to King Ahasuerus did not alienate him from his own people. He continued to seek their good and speak up for the welfare of his whole nation. Therefore he was held in highest honor among them, as well as trusted in the realm in which he exercised authority. Perhaps there is no severer test of greatness of soul than rapid political advancement. Too often such advancement has been the undoing of men who, in poverty or under disfavor in high places, have been true men. The man who can move to wealth and position among the mighty of the earth, yet still maintain his integrity and loyalty to his own, is truly a great man. The secrets of such greatness are invariably that his roots are in God.

Read All the Applications for Yourself!