[split] Critical Thinking Skills

[jstrodel]

This is a pretty catchy quote alright. The only way I see to improve on this would have been:

"It is not fallacious to appeal to popularity, people do it all the time."

The statement was not intended to be a philosophical argument proving the concept of the argument from authority, which is widely used in all professional writing, it was intended as a common sense reminder of the role that arguments from authority play at all levels of public understanding.

If someone thinks that all arguments from authority are fallacious, it is because they have never done any serious research, not because they are advancing a controversial issue.

The argument from authority is one of the central aspects of the modern world. See how many chemists can understand everything that biologist write about at the highest levels of biology. If people deny the importance of the argument from authority, it is because they are ignorant, not because they are advancing a controversial issue such as the role of the illumanati in public affairs or the merits of nuclear weapons, it is because they are just ignorant and they have never done any serious academic writing or research in their life.

I can't believe I am even writing this and no one is correcting the person. The atheist who does not have a zeal in his heart about the errors of his fellow atheists because of political motivations is a dishonest atheist.