Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
From Wikipedia: Colloquially, 'virtual' is used to mean almost, particularly when used in the adverbial form e.g. "That's virtually [almost] impossible".
There is no logical fallacy in what I said, and I've already apologized for being somewhat hyperbolic in my original statement. There's no need to  |
I am going to say three things, then stop.
Actually, I knew exactly what "virtually" meant, and when
still saying "almost everybody," you have a fallacious statement. You cannot poll "everybody" so you cannot state with any reliability or factuality if "almost all" (or even "most") scholars believe a certain thing.
There is yet another fallacy in this that I have not pointed out. Citing a majority -- even if you could prove a majority -- is not even solid ground to stand upon. If I said "most Americans believe in God" to an atheist, how much water would that hold in an argument? None at all, because most Americans could be wrong! And numerical superiority has no bearing on truth. (I cannot recall the name of the fallacy off the top of my head, but it's on that harbinger of wisdom, wikipedia!
)
And, finally, I apologize back. I did not see your response when I posted to HarryT, and I would have replied to you directly if I had. So that was my bad there.
(Would it be tasteless to make a joke about being a Christian and thinking that even horses could rise from the dead? Oh.... wait... yeah it would.
)
-Pie