Recognizing Fallacies/Taming Wild Fallacies/Gallery of Wild Fallacies

Gallery of Wild Fallacies

This is a collection of statements gathered from various published materials. Each statement is intended as an argument, presented as a basis for some conclusion. Most if not all of these arguments contain logical fallacies. Use these to practice identifying fallacies.

All mathematics is an abstract concept. It's a modeling tool, it isn't reality. One cloud plus one cloud only makes a bigger cloud. One rabbit plus one rabbit might yield anywhere from two to twenty-four rabbits. – Posting on a blog comment thread.

Thanks to Obama care, average E.R. wait in California is 5 hours and “it’s only going to get worse.” — Tweet by Reince Priebus.

“Believe me, we will win because America cannot afford to lose!”— Vice Presidential candidate Dan Qualye.

“The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country. If [there is] any place in the world we need Christianity, it's in Washington. And that's why preachers long since need to get over that intimidation forced upon us by liberals, that if we mention anything about politics, we are degrading our ministry. — Jerry Falwell

“AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh's charioteers. AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals. It is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.” — Jerry Falwell

“I had a woman the other day who came up and complained to me that she has to pay $200 a month for her prescriptions… I said, in other words, this $200 a month keeps you alive, she goes yes. I said, and you're complaining that you're paying $200 a month and it keeps you alive? What's your cable bill? I mean, what's your cell phone bill? Because she had a cell phone. And how can you say that you complain that you have $200 to keep you alive and that's a problem? No, that's a blessing!” — Rick Santorum

“I can say that marriage is — Marriage existed before governments existed. This is a napkin. I can call this napkin a "paper towel". But it is a napkin. Why? Because it is what it is. Right? You can call it whatever you want, but it doesn't change the character of what it is. Sort of the metaphysical. Right? So people come out and say marriage is something else. A marriage is the marriage of five people. Maybe five, ten, twenty. Marriage can be between fathers and daughters, marriage can be between any two people, any four people, any ten people, it can be any kind of relationship, and we can call it "marriage". But it doesn't make it marriage. Why? Because there are certain things, certain qualities, that attach to the definition of what marriage is. — Rick Santorum

“One of the things I will talk about that no president has talked about before is, that is, I think the dangers of contraception in this country, the whole sexual libertine idea. Many in the Christian faith have said, "Well, that's OK, I mean y'know, contraception is OK." It's not OK. It’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. They're supposed to be within marriage. They're supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal … but also procreative. That's the perfect way that a sexual union should happen.” — Rick Santorum

Rain follows the plow.

"God speed the plow.... By this wonderful provision, which is only man's mastery over nature, the clouds are dispensing copious rains ... [the plow] is the instrument which separates civilization from savagery; and converts a desert into a farm or garden.... To be more concise, Rain follows the plow." — Charles Dana Wilber

“I'm not familiar that they're dodging it. Maybe they are. But I think schools also ought to be fair to all views. Because, frankly, Darwinism is not an established scientific fact. It is a theory of evolution, that's why it's called the theory of evolution.” — Mike Huckabee

“We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?” — Mike Huckabee

“Worry is really just a form of atheism. Every time you worry, you’re acting like an atheist. You’re saying, ‘It all depends on me.’ That’s just not in the Bible.” — Rick Warren

“Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.” — Rick Warren

“The case for trade is not just monetary, but moral. Economic freedom creates habits of liberty. And habits of liberty create expectations of democracy.” — George W. Bush

“This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You've got to preserve.” — George W. Bush

“We haven't really had the time yet to pore through all those records in Baghdad. We'll find ample evidence confirming the link, that is the connection if you will between al Qaida and the Iraqi intelligence services. They have worked together on a number of occasions.” — Dick Cheney

“What hard evidence is there that Obama doesn't want ebola in America?” — Adam Baldwin, just asking a question

“They may be nice people when you meet them in the street, but you give them power to do what they want and carry out their own agendas and you’re gonna find that they don’t have any moral high ground to stand on ’cause they’re not standing on any whatsoever.” — Ray Comfort characterizing atheists

“Energy continually flows into the top of your head, moves downward through your torso, and then returns to where it came from.” — Gary Zukav and Linda Francis

“There's just something obvious about emptiness, even when you try to convince yourself otherwise.” — Sarah Dessen

“This is the vaccine mafia at work: Threatening people into silence, censoring a powerful documentary, leveling secret accusations in secret meetings, all while ridiculously claiming they alone have a monopoly on scientific truth which can never be challenged, debated or even questioned by anyone.” — Mike Adams

“The whole economy feels stuck.” — Paul Ryan

"Emerging from the single quantum vacuum, it seems that we remain connected throughout our lives, bound together by a mysterious energy that makes all creation a single whole." — Judy Cannato

“When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us versus them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there.” — George W. Bush

Many more examples, including analysis, are available from the Fallacy Files page on Stalking the Wild Fallacy.