The Newly Departed thread: announcements (departures)

[Bucky Ball]

Thing is, Mystic will say something nonsensical, then when called out on it being nonsensical he'll just retreat to sticking his fingers in his ears with the refrain "you haven't refuted my argument, I win."  That's his MO.  Good luck trying to get anything through to him.

At most, the following two premises can be contested and I've provided arguments for them:

(1) We would be an illusion if God didn't see us exactly as we are. (Have supported this many times).

(2) We aren't an illusion (have supported this)


Therefore God exists and sees us exactly as we are! 


There is nothing silly about them though.

My sister is the principal of a huge high school, in Virginia, outside Washington DC.
She keeps in touch with her kids by teaching one class in logic.
She's always on the lookout for practical examples of fallacies.
Thanks for giving us one.

It's called the false premise fallacy. Your first premise is not demonstrated.

"A false premise is an incorrect proposition that forms the basis of an argument or syllogism. Since the premise (proposition, or assumption) is not correct, the conclusion drawn may be in error. However, the logical validity of an argument is a function of its internal consistency, not the truth value of its premises.
For example, consider this syllogism, which involves a false premise:

• If the streets are wet, it has rained recently. (premise)
  
• The streets are wet. (premise)
  
• Therefore it has rained recently. (conclusion)
  

This argument is logically valid, but quite demonstrably wrong, because its first premise is false - one could hose down the streets, the local river could have flooded, etc. A simple logical analysis will not reveal the error in this argument, since that analysis must accept the truth of the argument's premises. For this reason, an argument based on false premises can be much more difficult to refute, or even discuss, than one featuring a normal logical error, as the truth of its premises must be established to the satisfaction of all parties."