History Main / AppealToAuthority

* ''WebVideo/LouderWithCrowder'': Crowder deems this one of the biggest logical fallacies employed by the progressive left, especially because of how inconsistently it's applied. Namely, appeal to identity (race/gender/etc.) and "lived experience" to shut down debate.

* During the neoclassical revivals of the Renaissance, the works of UsefulNotes/{{Aristotle}} were a major victim of this. While he did get a surprising number of things right (he was one of the first to realize that whales are a mammal), many claims made by Aristotle (particularly in the field of biology) were taken as proven fact, even if many of them could be tested and disproven with trivial effort. For instance, Aristotle claimed that if you take two objects of the same shape and material but different weight and drop them, the heavier object lands first. This wasn't properly disproven until the late 16th century, despite the fact that anyone with a couple of objects, a tall building, and an observer at the bottom could find the answer themselves.

* The ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' episode "Reynolds vs. Reynolds: The Cereal Defense" has Mac and Dennis get into a debate over religion. Mac is TheFundamentalist and is generally framed as a bit of an idiot, but he [[DumbassHasAPoint successfully outfoxes Dennis]] because he manages to prove that Dennis's belief in evolution is mostly just fueled by this trope. He doesn't actually know much about evolution, so he just claims "all the scientists say so", when even the smartest scientists make errors or get proven wrong all the time.

*** On that note, appeals to ''Creator/StephenHawking'' when discussing religion (both in a positive and negative sense) are very common, despite the fact that his main field of study is physics, and he actually has very little expertise/experience with theology. Same with ''Creator/AlbertEinstein''.
-->''The Catholic Church’s official position is that while Stephen Hawkings is a brilliant theoretical astrophysicist, when it comes to Theological Matters, Stephen Hawkings is a brilliant theoretical astrophysicist.''

* WordOfGod, when used in the context of what an author or creator intended in his work. By definition, WordOfGod is true. DeathOfTheAuthor, of course, holds that creator intent is irrelevant, and Word Of God carries no more (or less) weight more than Word Of The Guy Who Runs The Newspaper Kiosk or Word Of Your Sixth Grade Teacher -- but it is still definitive as far as what that intent happens to be (unless it is argued the creator is lying, as with things like ParodyRetcon).

* ''Vaxxed'': From Cover-Up to Catastrophe features an interview with Luc Magnier, who won a Nobel Prize for his contributions to the discovery of HIV. Unfortunately Magnier's expertise as a virologist is irrelevant in a movie about autism, because autism is not a virus.

-->''The Catholic Church official possition is that while Stephen Hawkings is a brilliant theoretical astrophysicist, when it comes to Theological Matters, Stephen Hawkings is a brilliant theoretical astrophysicist.''

While it can be valid to call upon expert opinion to support a position, it is not valid when the status of the person as an expert is the only thing called upon. While the statement may be true, it is not true ''because'' the authority stated it. Calling on your ''own'' authority is never valid, since if your opponent accepted you as an ironclad authority on what you were talking about you would not be having a debate in the first place.

*** Conversely, the list of scientists whom the supporters of "intelligent design"[[note]]read: creationists[[/note]] have come up with to support their claim; virtually all of these have their degrees in different areas of science other than biology, which makes them hardly any more qualified than the average person to weigh in on evolution's veracity. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Steve Project Steve]] is an attempt to show how ridiculous this means of supporting a scientific claim is.

While it can be valid to call upon expert opinion to support a position, it is not valid when the status of the person as an expert is the only thing called upon. While the statement may be true, it is not true ''because'' the authority stated it.

* BecauseISaidSo
* [[TrustMeImAnX Trust Me, I'm An X]]
* YouKnowWhoSaidThat

[[folder:Web Original]]
* During the 1990s, on the newsgroup comp.sys.sinclair, someone turned up briefly claiming "expertise", and backing up his claim by further claiming to have been a c.s.s. regular in the earliest days; knowing that Deja (as it then was) didn't have archives going back that far so his claim couldn't be disproved that way. A number of people called him out on this, pointing out that lack of evidence that he wasn't an early regular didn't amount to evidence that he was. A few years later, Google Groups absorbed Deja and extended their archive back to the earliest days of many groups including c.s.s.; to nobody's surprise, the so-called "expert" was nowhere to be found in the early posts.

* WordOfGod, when used in the context of what an author or creator intended in his work. By definition, WordOfGod is true. DeathOfTheAuthor, of course, holds that creator intent is irrelevant, and Word Of God carries no more (or less) weight more than Word Of The Guy Who Runs The Newspaper Kiosk or Word Of Your Sixth Grade Teacher -- but it is still definitive as far as what that intent happens to be.

* In ''LeftBehind'', the entire world believes a {{Technobabble}} nuclear physics explanation of the Rapture because a botanist and the president of Romania (note: not a nuclear scientist) say it's so. Later on in the book, the pseudo-religious explanation of the Rapture is accepted because it's espoused by an airline pilot.

* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E7JurassicBark Jurassic Bark]]", when Fry insists on diving into magma [[spoiler:to rescue the dolomite-petrified carcass of his dog Seymour]] and Professor Farnsworth explains why this is obviously a bad idea. When Bender dives in and the Planet Express crew expresses concern over his safety, Fry and Leela insist on going in, but Farnsworth becomes increasingly exasperated that he's [[IgnoredExpert being ignored]] despite his status as a professor.

* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Jurassic Bark", when Fry insists on diving into magma [[spoiler:to rescue the dolomite-petrified carcass of his dog Seymour]] and Professor Farnsworth explains why this is obviously a bad idea. When Bender dives in and the Planet Express crew expresses concern over his safety, Fry and Leela insist on going in, but Farnsworth becomes increasingly exasperated that he's being ignored despite his status as a professor.

* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Jurassic Bark", when Fry insists on diving into magma [[spoiler:to rescure the dolomite-petrified carcass of his dog Seymour]] and Professor Farnsworth explains why this is obviously a bad idea. When Bender dives in and the Planet Express crew expresses concern over his safety, Fry and Leela insist on going in, but Farnsworth becomes increasingly exasperated that he's being ignored despite his status as a professor.

'''Farnsworth:''' "[[HulkSpeak PROFESSOR! LAVA! HOT!]]"

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Monkey Suit", creationists seeking to ban the teaching of evolution succeed by getting a scientist to testify in court that evolution is a myth -- a scientist with a degree in "Truthology" from "Christian Tech".
** That and in another episode, when Marge said "children need discipline, just ask any certified advice columnist."

* On ''Series/{{QI}}'', when discussing the fact if you fire a bullet parallel to the ground and drop a bullet from the same height at the same time, they will hit the ground at the same time, StephenFry appeals to the audience, saying, "Are there any scientists here who will back me up on this?" Rich Hall then seems to [[LampshadeHanging point out]] this fallacy by following up with, "Or any assassins?"

*** Conversely, the list of scientists whom the supporters of "intelligent design" have come up with to support their claim; virtually all of these have their degrees in different areas of science. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Steve Project Steve]] is an attempt to show how ridiculous this means of supporting a scientific claim is.