A turkey has an hypothesis: "Farmer John is a cool dude. He really loves me!"
Farmer John brings the turkey some nice grain. The turkey says, "See, this proves it!"
Next day, Farmer John brings the turkey more grain. Turkey says, "Even more proof!"
Next day, delicious grain. Turkey says, "His love for me is clearly an established fact!"
More than three hundred days go by as above. The turkey, who learned about the scientific method from a naturopath, says, "I was pretty sure he loved me after a few days of kindness. But now that I've enjoyed over three hundred days of tender care, I have so much more proof of his love."
The next morning, Thanksgiving.
Now, for ten internets, can you name poor Mr. Turkey's logical fallacy?
49 minutes ago
Mr Turkey's logical fallacy was that he was a talking turkey!
ReplyDeleteOr is this one of God's creations like that serpent from Genesis 3?
Surely most turkeys are not like Mr Turkey and do not possess the right equipment to speak fluent English?
Well, ok, ... Mr Turkey doesn't actually have that equipment now after Thanksgiving where he does not have much of anything left to play with! :)
Therefore I submit my conclusion that Mr Turkey is in fact a miracle (like the Babel Fish from The Hitchhiker's guide with God) and is proof of a naturopath's existence and so therefore the naturopath does not in fact exist because proof denies faith.
Plus miracles are highly illogical and therefore a complete and utter fallacy
I can haz mai Internets now?
:)
Isn't it actually called "the turkey fallacy"?
ReplyDeletePerhaps more formally "the problem of induction"
I like to call it "suck it pseudoscience"
Mr. Turkey commits the fallacy of affirming the consequent:
ReplyDeleteIf Farmer John loves me, he will bring me grain.
Farmer John brought me grain.
Therefore, he loves me."
Or in other words:
If P, then Q.
Q.
Therefore, P.
Dr. Benway, I didn't know you had a blog, but I'll be watching this frequently.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the turkey ought to read up on Occam's razor.