It Might have Been True, Therefore It Must Have Been True

[jeff_duntemann]

There is a logic fallacy that I've seen a great deal in the last twenty years: "If X might be true, then X must be true." It sounds idiotic (it is; never allow yourself to stoop to it) but it's about the only draft animal that debunkers have in their mental stable. Most people have heard the

Comments

perhaps...

[anonymous]

Sounds like appeal to belief:
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-belief.html

Bill Meyer

or, perhaps a closer fit...

[anonymous]

begging the question?:
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/begging-the-question.html

But it might also be Burden of Proof:
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/burden-of-proof.html

There are several close possibilities (which suggests that you're not the only one to note how widespread is this logical failing.)

Bill Meyer

or perhaps

[happy_hacker]

Or perhaps it amounts to slashing about with Occam's razor. Weather balloons and such do represent a simpler explanation than asserting a supernatural event, the existence of a supernatural, and so forth. Interesting, though, that "simple" also seems to equate to "that which challenges established fact and theory the least