Sherlock Holmes Fallacy
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Explanation
You commit this fallacy if you use the Sherlock Holmes Method without being a superhuman genius like Holmes.
The Holmes Method works like this:
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".
To apply this method, you first have to find explanations, then eliminate them one by one. Both steps require omniscience to make it right:
- you have to find every possible explanation, which is very improbable given the limited imagination of humans,
- you have to disprove all of them, except one, but if one of the explanations is unfalsifiable, it will be left over at the end.
So, if you use the Holmes method, you will probably arrive at explanations that are easy to find but difficult to falsify, such as gods and other supernatural entities with unknown properties.
Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, ended up believing in spiritualism and fairies, using the Holmes method.
Category
Examples in creationist arguments
A fine example from creationism is William Dembski's Explanatory Filter.
