A person new to religion may have questions about the credibility of its belief system. For example, how do I know the way God operates? A person with a Christian belief system will tell you it’s written in the Bible. But how do I know the Bible is telling the truth? I did a search, and one of the results on the validity of the scriptures was the King James Bible online. The first one was:
“2 Timothy 3:16 – All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
If you are happy with the answer, like millions of people, you have committed the fallacy of begging the question. Begging the question is a complicated way of describing a circular reasoning, where an argument’s premise assumes the truth of the conclusion.
An argument has three parts:
1. Claim or conclusion – presented upfront
2. Support or evidence – presented to back the claims
3. Warrant or major premise – hidden in the argument but bridges the support to the claim.
Consider the following argument.
In the fallacy of circular argument, the claim (Bible is telling the truth) takes the evidence (verses from the book of Timothy) from the same book to prove the claim.
Data & Statistics on Autism Spectrum Disorder: CDC
