Persimplex Responsum Fallacy / Very Simple Answer Fallacy / Very Simple Solution Fallacy

The logical fallacy of reductpersimplex responsum fallacy / oversimplification / very simple answer fallacy / very simple solution fallacy occurs when a single and simple answer is provides to a very complex problem that requires answers to multiple questions.

Examples of the Persimplex Responsum Fallacy / Very Simple Answer Fallacy / Very Simple Solution Fallacy

Rocky: "Have you considered the many problems with abortion?"

Sandy: “The fetus is just a blob of tissue.”

What is the method by which Sandy thinks that he knows this? What about God and what He says about it? The gets into the whole issue of Divine revelation versus arbitrary assumption. What about the impact on the mothers who suddenly realize what they have done? What about the impact on society? What about God's judgment against the sin of adultry? And there are many other questions that are unanswered.

Sandy: "Of course life can form by random chance. Richard Dawkin’s Weasel program demonstrates that."

Rocky: "Richard Dawkin's Weasel program actually doesn’t even replicate the part of reality that it was supposed to because it not only abstracts a subset, but it also adds in a mechanism that is never found in nature, a component that targets the desired string of letters and saves them if they fit the target. There is no mechanism like this in nature."

Richard Dawkin's Weasel program is a joke of irrationality. It's a wonder that anyone could take it seriously.

Sandy: "Thomas Hobbes reasoned that all ethics and morals are simply the result of search for pleasure and avoidance of pain."

Rocky: "Hobbes may have rationalized that, but it is an oversimplification and doesn't really answer many questions."

Whether Sandy's summary is correct or not, this is quite an oversimplification. And Hobbes would also be claiming supernatural knowledge.

Carl Segan: “The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be”

What a beautiful example of oversimplification. Carl is claiming to be all-knowing. He is claiming to be God. Yet, God has revealed that the cosmos is not all that is, was, or will be. We know that God created the physical cosmos and the heavenly realm as well.

Sandy: “The Crusades and Inquisition were an obvious example of the danger of religion.”

Rocky: "Have you ever considered that you may be leaving out some of the detail in your analysis?"

There was a lot more to it than that. First, there was the threat of Islam that is a religion of world dominance--and they were succeeding at that time in taking over the world by the sword. The Crusades were largely a response to the threat. At the same time, Sandy is oversimplifying by using the label, religion. All religions are not the same. Not only that, Sandy excludes Atheism and Agnosticism from the label of religion, and these two religions are extremely violent. In addition, the Church fell away from Christ just as God had foretold: There must be a falling away. While the light never went out, it appears that there was not much light in the leadership of the Church during this period.