Invincible authority

	Cogito ergo sum; Logic and rhetoric
	Key articles
	Logical fallacy; Syllogism; Argument;
	General logic
	Appeal to fear; Danth's Law; Point refuted a thousand times; Presupposition; Science was wrong before; Ultracrepidarianism;
	Bad logic
	Appeal to consequences; Appeal to the minority; Argument from incredulity; Ecological fallacy; Red herring; Relativist fallacy; v - t - e

Invincible authority is a fallacy that occurs when an authority's opinion on an idea is cited as if that authority's support was the only evidence necessary to uphold said idea.

The fallacy is an appeal to authority and thus a conditional fallacy.

Form

P1: Source X supports Y.

P2: (unstated) Source X is necessarily correct.

C: Y is necessarily correct.

Examples

Einstein believed in a god, so I'm going to.
The world was created in seven days, because the Bible says so.
[Famous Person X] uses [Product Y]; so will I.
Many Christians make a special case for the Bible / God / Jesus,[1] arguing that everything else can be questioned except God. Often, this relies on the circular reasoning that God inspired the Bible because the Bible says so.

Problems

Such an argument is fallacious because there is no given reason why the authority's word should be accepted as final. The fallacy also faces the issue that only the authority's opinion is considered, while no opposing arguments are.

The line between invincible authority and a valid argument from authority can be difficult to draw; this does not mean no distinction exists. A sound argument based on citing authorities requires:

supporting the authority of the authority (e.g., the authority is an expert in the field, has been widely published, and agrees with scientific consensus) and
hedging your bets (because even the most qualified authorities make mistakes) and asserting that the authority's support merely makes an argument likely true, not necessarily true.

Ultimately, however, this fallacy underscores the weakness of citing authorities instead of arguments.

gollark: It's a vicious cycle thing and toilet paper received most media attention.

gollark: People are panic-buying toilet paper so other people are panic-buying it as it is becoming scarcer.

gollark: I think they actually do fractional distillation in industry, which would be... probably hard to DIY?

gollark: I hope not!

gollark: You only *ran this* once.

External links

"Invincible Authority" (old version), Bruce Thompson
"Invincible Authority Fallacy", SeekFind.net (a YEC Christian website)

References

Encyclopedia of Logical Fallacies Encyclopedia of Logical Fallacies SeekFind (archived from December 2, 2018). "Those who know Jesus Christ do not need fallacies. All others do."

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[1] Encyclopedia of Logical Fallacies Encyclopedia of Logical Fallacies SeekFind (archived from December 2, 2018). "Those who know Jesus Christ do not need fallacies. All others do."