Sanctioning the Devil Fallacy/ Avoiding Sanctioning the Devil

The Sanctioning the Devil Fallacy occurs when a debate or discussion is avoided on the rationale that debating or discussing would give undue credit to an opinion. This is a form of the message control tactic. It is also a form of declaring victory fallacy. In effect, it is saying, “I’m absolutely right. They are absolutely wrong. End of discussion!” That would be a summary dismissal.

Examples of the Sanctioning the Devil Fallacy

“We are not going to give those heretics a platform.”

Keep in mind that the word, "heretic," has to do with causing division, not with doctrine. Speculative doctrine can be divisive, however. In fact, most denominations/divisions in the Church exist because of speculative doctrine of one kind or another.

Those who believe the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man story tend to avoid open-forum discussions with those who don’t believe it. They have the political advantage and seem to prefer to present both sides of the issue from a slanted viewpoint, often to a captive and intimidated audience. Bill Nye took a lot of heat from the Secular Humanist community for debating Ken Ham on Creation-Flood versus the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man story simply because the Secular Humanists have been able to control the message to a large extent.