"The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but [that] of the wicked conceals violence." (Proverbs 10:11)
The “Correspondence” view of truth that summarizes one of the driving principles of the scientific method, holds that “a theory is true if and only if what it says about the world does in fact accurately describe the world.”[1] To give a few examples, the questions of whether or not the election results were legally compiled, or Donald Trump by his speech incited a riot, cannot be established by means of decree alone, whether by the US Congress or Supreme Court, or Mark Zuckerberg and his likes. These matters can only be known by the process of due diligence that entails looking into the facts of the case with both an open mind and a sense of humility that each and every one of us may potentially change our own minds, or that the data would discredit naysayers in light of the truth.
Failure to follow this method in
these matters has resulted in committing two logical fallacies. They include
firstly the formal fallacy, “Affirming the Consequent,” which means that “if
the consequent is said to be true, the antecedent is said to be true, as a result.” [2]
I paraphrase that to mean, If the
consequent is said to be true, then the prior assumption is also,
absurdly, assumed to be true. Secondly,
“Hasty Generalization” is a fallacy that “draws a conclusion based on a
small sample size rather than looking at statistics that are much more in line
with the typical…situation.” [3] In both cases, the conditions
are much worse since, in neither has the evidence been validly investigated at
all. In regard to the former charge (above), there
is weighty evidence to the contrary,[4]
while with respect to the latter, the video of his speech utterly contradicts the
charges.[5]
Consequently, it is fallacious to
suggest that people are “un-American” solely for not trusting the results of
the election or deeming that Donald Trump (morally-fallen just like all of the
rest of us) is innocent of the above accusations. There are no valid grounds for browbeating
citizens who find empty assertions not-persuasive, while on the other hand, the
exhibited naivety of clueless yet influential bullies throwing their weight
around, deserves scorn.
[1] J.P. Moreland. Christianity and the Nature of
Science. (Baker, 1989), p. 143** James Ladyman. Understanding the
Philosophy of Science. (Routledge, 2002), pp. 157-9.
[2]
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Affirming-the-Consequent
[3] https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Hasty-Generalization
[4] If I had the authority I would “apologize” on the part
of Google for the reason that when I probed the search engines for data, the
only results offered were only articles taking the Leftist position. Every other point of view, as far as I can
see, has been censored.
[5] https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6?fbclid=IwAR2iyWagdrlJmj ZRdBiztvyvskuzTlOkN3fXFo7Fvm3GDYhDLDe0XyDpoR4
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