argument from incredulity

{{short description|Informal logical fallacy}}

Argument from incredulity, also known as argument from personal incredulity, appeal to common sense, or the divine fallacy,{{cite web|last=Carroll|first=Robert T.|authorlink=Robert Todd Carroll|work=The Skeptic's Dictionary|url=https://skepdic.com/dvinefal.html|title=divine fallacy (argument from incredulity)|accessdate=5 April 2013}} is a fallacy in informal logic. It asserts that a proposition must be false because it contradicts one's personal expectations or beliefs, or is difficult to imagine.

Arguments from incredulity can take the form:

1. I cannot imagine how F could be true; therefore F must be false.
2. I cannot imagine how F could be false; therefore F must be true.

Arguments from incredulity can sometimes arise from inappropriate emotional involvement, the conflation of fantasy and reality, a lack of understanding, or an instinctive 'gut' reaction, especially where time is scarce.{{cite web|url=http://www.toolkitforthinking.com/critical-thinking/anatomy-of-an-argument/denial-arguments/argument-from-personal-incredulity|title=Toolkit for Thinking|access-date=2017-10-06|archive-date=2015-07-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705102956/http://www.toolkitforthinking.com/critical-thinking/anatomy-of-an-argument/denial-arguments/argument-from-personal-incredulity|url-status=dead}} They are also frequently used to argue that something must be supernatural in origin.{{cite book|last=Sen|first=Madhucchanda|title=An Introduction to Critical Thinking|publisher=Pearson Education India|date=2011|isbn=9788131734568|accessdate=2016-11-26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vJ4oVpKY_nwC&pg=PA63|page=63|quote=The divine fallacy is a kind of non sequitur but it warrants a special mention. It often happens that when we cannot explain a phenomenon, we resort to thinking that God must be responsible for it. For example, when people did not know the cause of thunder and lightning, they thought it was an expression of God’s rage.}} This form of reasoning is fallacious because one's inability to imagine how a statement can be true or false gives no information about whether the statement is true or false in reality.{{Cite web|url=https://effectiviology.com/argument-from-incredulity/|title=The Argument from Incredulity: How People Explain What They Don’t Understand – Effectiviology|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-10}}