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Statement of Conversion

Description:  Accepting the truth of a claim based on a conversion story without considering any evidence for the truth of the claim.

Logical Form:

I used to believe in X.

Therefore, X is wrong.

Example #1:

I used to be a Christian, now I know better.

Explanation: All this tells us is that the arguer changed his mind.  We don’t know why. Accepting this as evidence against Christianity would be fallacious reasoning.

Example #2:

There used to be a time when I didn’t believe, now I see the light and have accepted Jesus as my savior!

Explanation: All this tells us is that the arguer changed his mind.  We don’t know why.  Accepting this as evidence for Christianity would be fallacious reasoning.

Exception: It might be the case where the person with the conversion story has some expertise or direct experience related to the claim, so their conversion story is reasonable evidence for the truth of the claim.

I used to think that the earth was flat, then Elon Musk took me to the space station in one of his ships. I am no longer a flat-earther, and I can’t believe what an idiot I was listening to YouTube videos of 40-year-old guys living in their parent’s basement over NASA.

Tip: Remember not to confuse people’s interpretations of their experiences as actual experiences. People who were unbelievers in aliens visiting earth and changed their mind based on “aliens visiting them in their dreams” are almost certainly misinterpreting their experiences.

References:

This a logical fallacy frequently used on the Internet. No academic sources could be found.

Questions about this fallacy? Ask our community!

Eat Meat... Or Don't.

Roughly 95% of Americans don’t appear to have an ethical problem with animals being killed for food, yet all of us would have a serious problem with humans being killed for food. What does an animal lack that a human has that justifies killing the animal for food but not the human?

As you start to list properties that the animal lacks to justify eating them, you begin to realize that some humans also lack those properties, yet we don’t eat those humans. Is this logical proof that killing and eating animals for food is immoral? Don’t put away your steak knife just yet.

In Eat Meat… Or Don’t, we examine the moral arguments for and against eating meat with both philosophical and scientific rigor. This book is not about pushing some ideological agenda; it’s ultimately a book about critical thinking.

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