This is a fun one, brought to you by a list of fallacies online. I had never heard of this fallacy until today, and it’s an interesting one. Despite never hearing it before, I’ve seen it used and just didn’t know this sort of faulty argument had a name.

This is the fallacy that Christians commit when they make the claim that “Are you telling me martyrs who witnessed Jesus in the flesh died for a lie?”. It might sound harsh, but this is functionally the fallacy that they are committing. Simply because someone believed in something so much that they refused to renounce it, even in death, DOESN’T MAKE WHAT THEY DIED FOR TRUE. I hear this claim all the time as a vocal atheist who is willing to debate with theists, and I was seriously unaware that this format of argument had a name. The form this fallacy takes is the following: “Someone fought/tried really hard to prove X. Therefore X is true/has some sort of desirable trait, such as value or honor.”. It is also known as the “Notable Effort” fallacy and the “Noble Effort” fallacy.

This is a fallacy because it isn’t evidence for the truth of the argument. If the argument is that something exists, and the “reason” people have proof of it existing is that people were willing to die for it, that doesn’t make it true. Especially if it’s some sort of extraordinary claim. This is something interesting to ponder if you look at other stories in the Bible. The army that pursued the Jews while they fled Egypt is a good example. Were they “right” to have slaves, or did it have some sort of value, given the extent to which they pursued the Jews (I know the chapter states that the God hardened the heart of the Pharaoh but stick with me for a second), as the Jews fled, eventually being unable to chase them following the supposed incident at the Red Sea (specifically Exodus 14)? Does the death of the Egyptians somehow validate their beliefs? Of course not. This fallacy is extremely silly, and it should be viewed as such. Someone dying for a belief, be it religious, political, historical, or whatever else it could be does NOTHING for the value, or objective truth of a position.

Try to avoid this fallacy. Especially because sometimes people have to sound like a jerk explaining why the argument is flawed. And that always sucks. In order to beat this fallacy back, simply point out that an argument’s level of truth isn’t determined by the number of people who have died for it. Or that have fought hard for it. If one wants to, they could ask to see if the number of scientists with relevant degrees who assert that evolution happened, vs the number of equally certified scientists who assert that creation happened determines the “truth” of the evolution position. Perhaps after that people who make this argument will think twice.

Some information on this fallacy can be found here, and here.

Remember: every Friday is Fallacy Friday!