(March 28, 2013 at 10:46 pm)jstrodel Wrote: But those factors of the relevance and rigor of the authority are part of the argument from authority, MysticKnight. Someone could make an argument from authority to a church that had a history of 2000 years of giving authoritative pronouncements that shaped entire civilizations. That would very likely to be a good argument. The awareness of the nature of the authority is what makes it likely to be correct.
And it would be a fallacy to appeal to that kind of authority, because the clergy and the church are authorities only of their own artificial dogma and their own interpretation of scripture. That they have usurped a lot of worldly power doesn't make their opinions on anything more legitimate than mine.
