And the Lord Did Smite Them with Fallacies.
Monday, January 30, 2006 at 09:13AM
Figaro

initformoney.jpgQuote:  "You turn this nation over to the fags and our soldiers come home in body bags." Shirley Phelps-Roper.

Figure of Speechpost hoc ergo propter hoc, the Chanticleer Fallacy.

The Allegedly Reverend Fred Phelps leads his Baptist flock from Topeka, Kansas, on "love crusades" to funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.  They carry signs claiming the deaths are God's punishment for tolerating gays.  None of the dead soldiers were gay; but God, unlike Phelps, apparently doesn't discriminate.

His daughter Shirley's jingling quote sums up the church's big fat logical fallacy, post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this).  A happened after B.  Therefore A caused B.

I call it the Chanticleer Fallacy, after the rooster who thought his crowing made the sun come up.

Snappy Answer:  "Are you calling Congress and the President of the United States fags?"

Article originally appeared on Figures of Speech (http://inpraiseofargument.com/).
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