Straw Man
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(Redirected from Straw Man Fallacy)
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This page is part of the EvoWiki encyclopedia of fallacies. |
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Synonyms
- Straw Dog
- Wooden Dummy
- Scarecrow
Explanation
Originally referring to an effigy in the shape of a man to practice sword strokes on, a Straw Man now refers to a weak or invented argument set up simply to be easily refuted. A Straw Man Argument sets up an incorrect caricature of a particular position, refutes the caricature, and claims victory over the actual position held.
For example, a Straw Man Argument may claim that "random chance cannot create complex species; therefore, evolution is wrong". However, the theory of evolution is not based on random chance.
Category
External Links
Examples in creationist arguments
- Evolution is the foundation of an immoral worldview
- Evolution is racist
- Darwin's work refers to preservation of favoured races
- Evolution encourages eugenics
- Evolution is ambiguously defined
- Scientific findings are always changing
- Science is naturalistic
- Evolution encourages promiscuity and lust
- Survival of the fittest is a tautology
- Evolutionists haven't met Hovind's challenge to prove evolution
- One suggested ancestry line for humans is: Lucy, Heidelberg Man, Nebraska Man, Piltdown Man, Peking Man, Neanderthal Man, New Guinea Man, Cro-Magnon Man, Modern Man
- Biologists think that Carbon 14 proves evolution
- Archaeopteryx was probably not an ancestor of modern birds
- Explosions such as the Big Bang don't produce order or information
- The fossil record shows sudden appearance followed by stasis
- The ages of fossils are arrived at by guessing
- The odds of life forming are incredibly small
- Even the simplest life is incredibly complex
- First cells couldn't come together by chance
- Evolution asserts that human thoughts and behaviors are dictated by our biology and environment
- Evolutionary theory in computer science has been unsuccessful
