Strawman and Bandwagon Fallacies

Often, evolutionists don’t refute the actual creationist position but instead refute a silly position held by virtually no-one. This fallacy is often called ‘knocking down a straw man.’ A related fallacy, ‘weak man’, refutes an argument made by less informed people but long ago rejected by the leading proponents. For example, the biblical creationist position is that God created different kinds, each with the capacity for lots of variation. Saying that creationists deny that species change, i.e. believe in fixity of species, would be a straw man.

Sometimes the straw man is not stated explicitly but implicitly in an argument. E.g. claiming that since breeders have made many varieties of dogs, evolution is true and biblical creation is false. But this is not countering the biblical creationist argument. In fact, creationists both before and after Darwin rejected fixity of species. Fixity of species was actually pushed by Darwin’s mentor Charles Lyell, the leading promoter of long-age geology.

We have seen ‘weak man’ fallacies when an evolutionist tries to disprove creation by arguing against a real person who used an unsound argument. For example, ‘Women have one more rib than men.’ Some people really do believe this. However, CMI long ago pointed out why this is false (see CMI’s list in creation.com/dontuse). In short: amputees don’t have amputee children, and the Bible doesn’t imply otherwise.

The straw man argument can work both ways. E.g., there is certainly a place for showing up evolutionary frauds and retractions, especially to undermine their dogmatic certainty. However, CMI articles, books, and talks tend not to major on these. Rather, we want to show that even the evolutionist’s strongest case fails badly.

Bandwagon Fallacy

In 19th-century USA, a bandwagon was a wagon that carried a circus band, which attracted a crowd. Politicians decided to use bandwagons in their campaigns. The term ‘jump on the bandwagon’ became commonly used for joining a popular political campaign. Later, the term was extended to mean following the crowd or majority in any opinion. The fallacy is also called appeal to the majority or appeal to the people (in Latin: Argumentum ad populum). However, the majority is not always right.

Probably, the reason most people provide for believing in evolution is ‘most scientists are evolutionists’. But if you asked most of these scientists why they believe in evolution, most will also respond, ‘because most scientists believe it.’ In the vast majority of scientific work, evolution plays no part. Another reason is that many scientists are just unaware of the strong case for creation. Or else, the only arguments they have heard are straw man or weak man fallacies.

However, the minority can be wrong too. We should avoid the reverse fallacy of rejecting something just because a majority believes it. E.g. ‘Are you going to be a mindless conformist sheeple following the crowd?’ At CMI, we are pro-Bible, not anti-establishment for the sake of it.

Conclusion

Since Jesus is the Logos, as imitators of Christ, we should be logical. It also helps us spot many of the fallacies that evolutionists commit. Knowing that should make us more confident and accurate when we witness about the Logos.

https://creation.com/strawman-and-bandwagon-fallacies