Personally, I couldn't give a flip if somebody believes in astrology or whatever. I don't see the point of resorting to name calling over something like this. It makes me wonder where the "intelligent adults" have gone off to.
And now for our daily fallacy lesson. Which one below (a-j) applies to the following statement ?
How can supposedly intelligent adults actually believe (and waste any time) on this astrology crap? Are they mentally handicapped? Is it genetic? Memetic? Are they the blind follower type that fall for any type of New Age mumbo-jumbo?
a. Fallacies of presumption are unsound arguments because of unfounded, or unproven embedded assumptions.
b. Fallacies of relevance are arguments in which the premises do not bear upon the drawn arguments even though they may appear to do; therefore, this makes them irrelevant.
c. Poisoning the Well: an attempt to preclude discussion by attacking the credibility of an opponent; ?this expression goes back to the Middle Ages, when waves of anti-Jewish prejudice and persecution were common. If a plague struck a community, the people blamed it on the Jews, whom they accused of?poisoning the wells.?
d. Hasty Generalization: drawing conclusions from too little of evidence and often relying on stereotypes.
e. Personal Attack: committed by attacking a person for making an argument, rather than the argument itself.
f. Abusive ad Hominem: a direct attack on a person's character rather than focusing on his or her arguments.
g. Common Sense: an argument is held to be true because of practical truths and common sense. Common sense is sometimes correct, but all too many times all too commonly incorrect.
h. Bandwagon: supporting a claim by stating that ?everyone? believes or acts a particular way.