
Appeal to Authority
The fallacy of appeal to authority makes the argument that if one credible source believes something that it must be true.
Example of Appeal to Authority
- If the Pope says that an aspect of doctrine is true, then it should be added to the creed, since he is infallible.
- The mayor said that the crime rate is down. The statistics claiming otherwise must be erroneous. Since the mayor is in charge of the city and supposedly aware of the goings on his statement should supersede statistical data.
This is a common fallacy.