(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

ANSWERING AD IGNORANTIAM QUESTION FALLACIES

I’m not saying you shouldn’t answer ad ignorantiam questions. Often, you’ll know the answer, and God will lead you to answer the question. Many Christian groups do an excellent job answering the ad ignorantiam question fallacies. Answers in Genesis is a great example. Mostly, you can assure yourself that ad ignorantiam questions prove nothing.  You don’t have to be frustrated when you realize hardened skeptics aren’t interested in the truth. You can know all ad ignorantiam questions about Christ or the Bible have answers even if you don’t know the answer. The ad ignorantiam question is a rhetorical question meant to make a statement rather than ask a question. When the statement is against the Bible or Christ, you know the statement has no truth to back it up.

The basis of your faith is Jesus Christ. Very few ad ignorantiam questions attack that basis. Some do attack that basis. We base our faith on nothing less than Christ. Our faith comes by hearing the rhema, or utterance, of God. He speaks, and faith comes. We know He exists because we know Him.

A question that goes to the basis of your faith implies you aren’t experiencing what you’re experiencing in Christ. The skeptic means to gaslight you. The skeptic implies you’re crazy or deceived. Here’s an example.

AD IGNORANTIAM QUESTION FALLACY

“How does god talk to you? Specifics please.”

STATEMENT THE SKEPTIC IS MAKING IN THE RHETORICAL QUESTION

“God doesn’t exist. You aren’t experiencing what you’re experiencing.”

ANSWERING THE AD IGNORANTIAM QUESTION FALLACY

“First, let me clarify that I’m talking about the Almighty God rather than “god” as your question is asking. In answer to your question, I have no certainty a god is speaking to me at any time.

Now let me answer the question you should have asked. The Almighty, Triune, Creator God speaks to me in various ways. And divine revelation varies between individuals. I have friends who have experiences I don’t have. I have experiences they don’t have.

Sometimes, God has spoken to me in a vision. Sometimes, He’s spoken to me in a dream. Often, He speaks is a whisper or a normal voice in my spirit. He’ll often speak to me through a brother or sister in Christ. And He lets me know He’s speaking through them. I’ve come to know the voice of Christ.

However, I pray every day that God would soften my heart toward Him. I know how wicked my fallen mind is and how tricky it is. So I pray for discernment and an open mind to God. I pray for a submissive heart that loves justice and righteousness. I pray that the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost.

God speaks to you, maybe through me. Then faith comes. You believe what God is saying, but you don’t know why. It’s because He gave you faith. It’s because Jesus Christ, God’s Word, authored that faith in you. And then, your born into God’s family. Satan is no longer your father and has no rights to you.

That’s when the battle starts. That’s when the road to spiritual maturity begins. The fleshly nature wants to do what the fleshly nature wants to do. It’s an enemy of God’s Spirit, so there is conflict. That’s why I pray for a soft heart toward God every day.

If God speaks to you and you harden your heart against Him, faith won’t come to you. The opposite happens. Your mind is darkened. You have less discernment between reality and make-believe.

Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Suppose God spoke to you and you knew for certain it was God. Would you leave all the sinful things you like to do? Would you serve Christ and only do His will and only say His words?”

********

It was no surprise that the skeptic who asked the question wasn’t interested in the answer. The skeptic was just using a debate tactic and pretending to want an answer. The question wasn’t a question. Skeptics pretend to be open-minded, but they are skeptics, so their minds are closed to truth. They harden their hearts whenever God speaks to them. They’re dogmatic against God.

Arguments against Christ are always based purely on made-up stuff. None of them ever have substance.

(end quote)

An Alternative to Answering Ad-Ignorantiam Question Fallacies

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

An Alternative to Answering

Rather than trying to answer, why not point out the fallacy? Ad-ignorantiam-question fallacies can’t prove anything. They can’t generate truth. They just muddy the water. You can ask whether the skeptic wants the truth. Sometimes, you might get caught in mind games. At those times you can focus on the game rather than answering fools according to their foolishness and becoming a fool like them. Show them the difference. Explain that you know and listen to Christ. Explain that they make up stuff and use smokescreen fallacies but have no path to truth.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Confirmation Bias

Here’s the trouble with dogmatism. Dogmatic skeptics put on a super-skeptical filter whenever they’re confronted with God. They’re super-gullible when examining anything anti-Bible or anti-Christ. They’ll accept just about anything.

So they present a question, but they already know they won’t accept any answer. Their Skeptometer is set on high.

“NO! That makes no sense to me.”

That’s their reaction no matter the answer. If necessary, they change the subject, resort to personal attacks, or try other fallacies. They say something like this:

“Just convince me. Oh! Surprise! You couldn’t convince me. That confirms my bias. It makes my worldview, my fake reality seem more real. My fake reality seems more real to me than real reality. It makes my imaginary world seem more genuine.”

So they walk into even greater darkness and have less ability to tell the difference between reality and make-believe, truth and error, or good and evil.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Answering the Questions

People create websites or books to list questions. You’ll find “questions for atheists,” “questions for theists,” “questions for evolutionists,” and “questions for creationists.” Other people create websites or books to list answers to questions. You’ll find the search engines, which are part of the great false prophet system, weighting their searches to favor the atheists and evolutionists. Those aren’t the only subjects for ad ignorantiam question fallacies. They’re just a few examples.

Often, a well-executed fallacy can change people’s minds. And, since the people changed their minds based on fallacies, they’re more likely to move from truth to falsehood.

We might buy books or go to websites to get the answers to ad-ignorantiam-question fallacies. And we can find some good answers out there. We can often find many answers to a single question. The answers aren’t usually absolute or final. Often the argument-from-ignorance fallacy asks Christians to speculate about what God hasn’t fully revealed. They ask us to go beyond what God has revealed. Therefore, the answers go beyond what God has revealed. They’re speculative. When our answers go beyond what God has revealed, they may be feasible, but they necessarily add to God’s words or diminish God’s words. What God has revealed is enough. Sometimes, the ad ignorantiam question is so vague we don’t know what the question is. We may be tempted to answer a vague question. However, we do better if we clarify what the question is.

Does it do any good? Maybe. Some say if we don’t answer the question, it means a false claim is true. And yet, whatever answer we give, the person asking the question is likely to reject our answer. We’re trying to defend the truth. However, debates aren’t ways of finding truth. Debates are ways of winning and making others lose.

Persuaders use ad ignorantiam questions to prove points, but their questions can’t prove any point. As stated, reality doesn’t change if we don’t answer a certain question.

(end quote)

Here’s another way ungodly thinkers use the ad ignorantiam fallacy as a smokescreen. With Christ, we don’t need fallacies. Without Christ, people make up stuff and use smokescreen fallacies to deceive you.

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

“Here’s an apparent conflict. Explain it.”

The persuader claims a conflict exists and your inability to prove no conflict exists either proves some point or disproves the point. Someone may claim a conflict exists in the Bible or a story told by scientists. Someone may claim there’s a conflict between something about God and what we can see. Claims of the conflicts in the Bible always depend on at least one assumption or other made-up stuff. Theologians, scientists, and experts often have real conflicts in their thinking, but that doesn’t prove them wrong. You can’t know the truth without God. God can reveal truth. What God reveals is true. God shows us partial revelation, which means you won’t be able to answer every question.

(end quote)

Today’s quote is looking at another way ungodly thinkers use the ad ignorantiam question fallacy. There are good reasons to ask someone how their idea or claim works. It can help you understand their claim. It can’t tell you whether their claim is true or false. It can’t prove anything. We know many things because God reveals them to us. For instance, we know the Bible is God’s Word without error, and we may know some truths about that fact. However, we can’t answer every question about the Bible unless God reveals the answers to us.

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

“How does it work?”

With the “how does it work” ad ignorantiam question, here’s the claim. “If you don’t know how something works, that proves or disproves some point.” That claim is false. If you don’t know the answer to a question, that just proves you don’t know the answer. It doesn’t prove anything else. A persuader may ask exactly how God created the heavens and the earth or how the first life got started. They may ask whether the Second Law of Thermodynamics was enforced in the Garden of Eden or what existed before a supposed big bang created everything from nothing. God hasn’t revealed everything. Speculation is just putting yourself on the same level as the ungodly persuader since speculation is making up stuff. Can your lack of knowledge have any effect on reality? No. That’s why ad ignorantiam is a fallacy.

(end quote)

Today’s quote is from a section about how people try to use ignorance to prove their points. If God didn’t exist, you would have to be all-knowing to know anything. You would have to know everything about everything or you could be wrong about anything. However, when God reveals Himself to you, He begins to lead and teach you. He reveals that He knows everything and He can’t lie. What He reveals to you is true. If your fallen mind adds some error to what God has shown you, God will correct you as you come to Him in humility and open your mind to His correction.

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

“Prove me wrong.”

Here, the persuader presents his or her pet theory. The theory may be theological, scientific, political, or anything else. After presenting the pet theory, which may be as short as a single sentence, the persuader says, “Prove me wrong.” The persuader implies the claim is true unless you prove the persuader wrong. The persuader may imply or openly express the “prove me wrong” part. When anyone makes a bare claim, that person implies the claim is true unless someone can prove it’s false. Sometimes, a persuader will make the claim and then say, “Prove me wrong.” Sometimes, the persuader will state the fallacy plainly by saying, “Unless you can disprove my claim, my claim stands.” You might choose not to play the game. You don’t want to argue. The persuader then thinks your lack of a willingness to argue “proves” the pet theory. If you do engage, the persuader rejects anything you say and uses that rejection as “proof” of the pet theory. If you say the theory is speculative, the persuader sees that as “proof” of the pet theory.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Christians and non-Christians alike commit the ad-ignorantiam-question fallacy. This fallacy never comes from godly thinking, however. Godly thinking doesn’t commit fallacies since godly thinking begins with truth and doesn’t add to or take away from the truth. In godly thinking, the truth comes from God by divine revelation.

Here’s the problem with the ad-ignorantiam-question fallacy. Ignorance of the answer cannot possibly affect reality. Ignorance of the answer cannot possibly prove anything true or false.

(end quote)

Some people don’t want God to exist. When they ask you a question, they don’t want an answer. They want to convince you that God doesn’t exist. They’ve rationalized their unbelief. Every rationalization that supports false ideas like atheism, agnostism, or naturalism is based on made-up stuff.

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

There are three elements to an ad ignorantiam question fallacy:

1. A persuader asks a question.
2. The intent of the question is to prove (or disprove) a certain claim.
3. The persuader implies that the claim is proven (or disproven) if the other person won’t or can’t answer.

Other fallacies can enter. For instance, a persuader may state the question in vague terms. The question may miss the point. Some persuaders brace themselves to reject any answer they receive. Most of the time, the persuader using an ad-ignorantiam-question fallacy isn’t looking for truth because they think they have the truth.

(end quote)