Logical Fallacy of Appeal to Emotion / Emotional Appeal / For the Children / Emotion as proof

The logical fallacy of appeal to emotion occurs when an emotion-inducing statement is used to support a conclusion rather than a true premise. There is nothing wrong with emotion. Almost all decisions seem to be made based on emotions and the rationalized to make them seem as if they were logical decisions. And there are many emotions. Appeal to fear is one of the kinds of logical fallacy of appeal to emotions.

Emotional appeal wins over facts and logic every time in the public opinion. This is why ungodly people have worked so hard to control the entertainment industry, films, and novels. In fact, the evolution/atheism movement was not doing really well using logic. The new atheists talk logic and science but can’t really use it, and they have found that using emotion is working for them much better. The words, logic and science, are just slogans now.

Examples of the Logical Fallacy of Appeal to Emotion / Emotional Appeal / For the Children

"It means that Ken Ham's word, or his interpretation of these other words, is somehow to be more respected than what you can observe in nature, what you can find in your backyard in Kentucky. It’s a troubling and unsettling point of view"

Bill Nye is using the logical fallacy of appeal to emotion again. This is coupled with a straw man fallacy, and we are supposed to believe the straw man fallacy because of the appeal to emotion. It was not about Ken Ham. It was about what God says through Scripture. Nothing that God says through Scripture in any way conflicts with what we can observe in nature. There is no question that God is troubling to a person who wants God to not exist, who doesn't want to acknowledge God. It can be very unsettling to them. And they tend to be troubled and unsettled whenever they find out about anyone who personally knows Jesus, the real, living Christ. However, the emotion that Bill Nye is feeling has no impact at all on reality. This is why appeal to emotion is a logical fallacy.

“There is nothing that is right or wrong in itself and saying that there absolutes of right and wrong is dangerous.”

Note that no evidence has been offered to prove that there are no rights or wrongs, a very strong claim. This is the logical fallacy of appeal to emotion.

“We must have a new school building for the sake of the children.”

No mention is made that the average classroom has only 11 students and that the main purpose of the multi-million dollar tax burden is to provide a more comfortable and prestigious environment for the teachers and wonderful sports facilities that certain people in the community want.

“We must not allow the teaching of creation or any questioning of the evolution (meaning, the story of molecules-to-man Darwinism and billions of years) because it will confuse the children to do so."

It might teach them critical thinking skills, science, and logic, how to evaluate two different ideas for truth or fiction. It is understandable, however, why one side would like to limit the message to what they prefer to believe.

Films that regularly promote ideas such as evolution, billions of years, Atheism, Naturalism, anti-Christ, etc., using an emotional story line.

Inherit the Wind was a film designed to use emotion to belittle those who accept God at His Word and to exalt evolutionism, and it worked on some people. (the Scopes trial)

Fallacy Abuse

“When you use the phrase ‘unguided chance’, you are being deliberately provocative, and trying to make a well-understood process sound impossible - next you'll be talking about junkyards and 747s.”

Note that the claim, “you are being deliberately provocative” is an attempt to stir up emotion in those who overhear the conversation. The comment, “next you'll be talking about junkyards and 747s,” is also an appeal to emotion, trying to make it sound like there is something wrong with pointing out that nothing violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  There are other problems with this argument. There is nothing provocative or emotion enducing about the phrase, "unguided chance."