Extrapolation and Generalization

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen 

Using my new assault keyboard in the fake science resistance. This one is also unregistered.

Many fallacies are closely related, and they often overlap. Sometimes it is difficult to properly identify them. I reckon it is more important to use critical thinking skills and realize when someone is dealing from the bottom of the deck than categorizing those fallacies.

Generalizing

Misotheists frequently use the hasty generalization fallacy to demonize Christians and creationists. This induction fallacy is used when a generalization is made from insufficient evidence. F'rinstance, atheopaths post a link to an article where members of a crackpot cult let their child die because they did not seek medical attention, and their conclusions spanned, "Christians are stupid", "Religion is evil", and some even use this to claim, "There is no God".

We don't need to ride the side trail and examine each of those in depth as well as additional fallacies. What is clear from the get-go is that there was not a valid sample set to justify any of their conclusions. Such "reasoning" is common among bigots of all stripes.

Extrapolating Without a Warrant

Dinosaur Feathers

Related to hasty generalization is the fallacy of unwarranted extrapolation. Many fundamentalist believers in atoms-to-astrophysicist evolution think that dinosaurs evolved into birds, then confirm their biases nonexistent facts. Excellent fossils are making good impressions (heh!) on paleontologists, and technology has improved so that more detailed analyses of fossils can be made. 

They are finding impressions that are occasionally called protofeathers, but the evidence is inconclusive and other possible explanations are ignored. It is not valid to conclude from these contested observations that dinosaurs had feathers. 

Let's take this a step further and give them an undisputable discovery that a dinosaur had feathers. Biblical creationists should not be bothered if this did happen because, okay, God made a dinosaur with feathers. But to assert that this proves other dinosaurs had them is not justified. The extrapolation of proof that dinosaurs evolved into birds is also invalid. You savvy that, pilgrim?

Mixing in Conflation

We have seen many times that evolutionists conflate variations with evolution. They also tend to insist that their interpretations of evidence are the only ones, but variations just as easily show the design work of the Creator (see "The [Not So] Universal Genetic Code: Evidence for Evolution [Part 7"]. Some Darwinoids have extrapolated that since creationists believe in variation, speciation, and so on, we also believe in evolution. That is a viperine lie.

Be on Guard

Christians and creationists are to glorify God with our minds and use reasonable argumentation. Therefore, we must be careful not to be hasty in our conclusions. We also need to be wary of these and other fallacies when atheists and evolutionists try to hornswoggle us.