The appeal to Authority is one of the basic fallacies used by the Cosmic con-men to make people believe that they have some special knowledge that authorizes them to speak their usual nonsense.
An appeal to authority is an argument from the fact that a person judged to be an authority affirms a proposition to the claim that the proposition is true. First of all, you can be an authority in let’s say, international conflicts resolution, and even put a “doctor” before your name, but in any way this gives you any special knowledge about extraterrestrial life and Exopolitics. This is so, because Exopolitics is pseudoscience and there is no evidence of any kind of extraterrestrial life until this very moment.
Appeals to authority are always deductively fallacious; even a legitimate authority speaking on his area of expertise may affirm a falsehood, so no testimony of any authority is guaranteed to be true.
However, the informal fallacy occurs only when the authority cited either (a) is not an authority, or (b) is not an authority on the subject on which he is being cited. If someone either isn’t an authority at all, or isn’t an authority on the subject about which they’re speaking, then that undermines the value of their testimony.
So we find Lawyers talking about time-space jump, Judges writing about extraterrestrial civilizations legislation, and the grand granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower giving lectures about life in Mars, Cosmic Alchemy and “ascension to the 5th Dimension.”
There are also experts that teach Galactic Diplomacy (sic)
This nonsense sold as a treasure, blends the fallacy of authority with the one of ambiguity.
Words without any real meaning are employed to make you believe that the fantasists have a special knowledge. Pay them and you will learn how to ascend to the 5th Dimension.
Andy Basiago, the time-jumper, will use the word “quantum” several times, because this word sounds scientific and ultramodern. Also, the cosmic gurus proclaim themselves “pioneers” of disciplines and pseudo sciences that simply do not exist in the real world.
People who ignore the tricks that are common in this rarified world of lies and fallacies, will in some cases believe the words and promises of these “experts.”
This same “knowledge “can be found in $1 used New Age books.
