(February 13, 2019 at 10:33 am)Der/die AtheistIn Wrote:(February 13, 2019 at 8:30 am)Brian37 Wrote: There is a huge difference between the appeal to lawmakers, religious leaders, and independent scientific peer review that fosters consensus over time.
North Korea has laws, so in that context, yea appeal to their authority is bullshit.
The ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks also had religious leaders, and again, appeal to their authority would also be a fallacy.
But when it comes to facts like evolution and big bang, appealing to the long term observations that confirm those facts, that is not a fallacy.
Appealing to authority is a fallacy only when the argument is that something is true, because someone with authority says so, this is always false, even if the thing that you try to prove is true. When a scientist makes observations, it's the observation itself that is proof.
I think what people are missing, is the difference as to how laypeople use a word, and how that same word in science is a completely different definition.
You cannot treat the word "authority" as laypeople use as being the same definition as scientific method uses that word.
You, "it is the observation that is the proof"..... <---- Yes, I agree. And that "authority" that comes up with the consensus by independent peer review is not a laypersons definition.
The only point I am making in this is that you cannot and should not let laypeople treat the same word they think of as being equal to how science uses the same word.
