Logical Fallacy of Selling the Defect / Marketing the Objection as a Benefit

Selling the defect is one of the many smokescreens that are used to cover the fact that the reasoning is based on one of the three fallacies of Agrippa's trilemma. Whenever a logical fallacy is committed, the fallacy has its roots in Agrippa's trilemma. All human thought (without Divine revelation) is based on one of three unhappy possibilities. These three possibilities are infinite regress, circular reasoning, or axiomatic thinking. This problem is known as Agrippa's trilemma. Some have claimed that only logic and math can be known without Divine revelation; however, that is not true. There is no reason to trust either logic or math without Divine revelation. Science is also limited to the pragmatic because of the weakness on human reasoning, which is known as Agrippa's trilemma.

The logical fallacy of selling the defect / marketing the objection as a benefit occurs when someone takes a weak point in the argument and asserts that it is the strongest part of the argument. This is especially seen in marketing where a product has a defect but clever marketing people are able to rationalize a benefit to the buyer from the defect.

Examples of The Logical Fallacy of Selling the Defect / Marketing the Objection as a Benefit

Roxanne: "People who believe that science is the best and most accurate way to know anything always say that what the majority of scientists are currently saying should be trusted, but the story keeps on changing. The Bible doesn’t change and there is nothing in actual observed science that conflicts with it. The science books come out and are out of date before they hit the classroom, but the Bible has always been up to date with what can actually be observed. I would believe what the Bible says before I would believe these constantly changing books."

Sandy: "You don’t understand that this is the strength of science and why science can be trusted. This system works because we are constantly adapting as new data comes in."

Sandy is selling the defect of science as the benefit and using this fallacy as a reason to trust what is not trustworthy. Science alone can never deal with truth, because it is not absolute. That is not a strength of science. It is a weakness.

Roxanne: "Scientists do add stories to explain things like the soft tissue and DNA in dinosaur fossils or the fact that that no information has ever been observed being added to anything by natural means. But, as the evidence mounts, they won’t challenge the main assumptions of spontaneous self-creation, billions of years, and such like. How much evidence has to accumulate before someone questions those basic assumptions?"

Sandy: "You don’t’ understand that this is the strength of science and why science can be trusted. This system works because we have established science that no one can question."

Again, the defect is sold as the benefit. This time, the weakness is in dogmatism that is based on nothing. This is unlike the Christ-follower who hears the Utterance of Christ, the leading of the Holy Spirit. The main thing that they know is the Person of Christ, and that is an ever-unfolding revelation of His Will and His Nature. For instance, He reveals that the Bible is His Word and that it is without error. Yet, as we walk, we are constantly understanding this truth on a deeper level. In fact, Christ reveals to us that if we know anything, we don't know it as we ought to know it. There are always deeper depths and higher heights in Christ Jesus.