Arguments often contain many fallacies and it is important to detect fallacious arguments and then form decisions. Below is an analysis of three such fallacies which have been described and examples are described to show why it is important to detect them.

             FALLACIES.

             Ad Ignorantiam.

             This fallacy is on the principle that in the case there is a lack of evidence to prove it to be true, it is considered naturally to be false. An atheist might claim that as a creationist cannot prove that God exists therefore God does not exist. Similarly a creationist can say that because the atheist cannot prove that God does not exist, hence God exists. Basically this fallacy deals with the burden of proof and in the absence of any proof it labels the opposite to be absolutely true. This fallacy is used in the judicial systems that are based on the principle of "innocent until proven guilty". Hence the burden of proof is not on the defendant but on the prosecutor to prove him to be guilty. If he fails to submit sufficient evidence then the defendant is assumed to be innocent and released. This type of fallacy compromises critical thinking because the absence of proof does not necessarily mean the opposite to be true. Disregarding every other argument because sufficient evidence was not put forward is certainly not critical thinking. It is important to detect such a fallacy and remove it from an argument that provides a conclusion based on the appeal to ignorance.

             Senator Joe McCarthy used this type of fallacy to support his claim:.

             "I am only giving the Senate, cases in which it is clear there is a definite Communist connection.persons whom I consider to be Communists in the State Department. I do not have much information on this except the general statement of the agency.that there is nothing in the files to disprove his Communist connections." (Richard H. Rovere, p.106-107).

             The agency could not disprove Communist connection hence it was assumed that there were Communist connections.