Ignorance always benefits prejudice and dishonesty, and
this can be clearly seen in the lack of knowledge of the ABC of rational
thinking.
Regularly we find this ignorance at work in polemics
between contemporary mythologists and rationalists. A good sample of this
active ignorance is the use of the burden of proof fallacy by the Exo-fantasists.
This is not a surprise, because UFO experts’ total lack
of evidences about what they say is true, particularly the presence of
extraterrestrial civilizations in our planet. The fallacy of burden of proof is
committed when those who tell us that about the ET hypothesis as fact are
confronted with the logical demand of evidences about what they say.
Instead of recognizing that they have no evidences, the
fantasists pretend us to proof that there are NOT extraterrestrials in or
planet. They put the burden of proof in the wrong side,
The burden of proof is always on the person making an
assertion or proposition. Shifting the
burden of proof is the fallacy of putting the burden of proof on the person who
denies or questions the assertion being made. The source of the fallacy is
the assumption that something is true unless proven otherwise.
A standard rule in argumentation is “he who asserts must
prove,” meaning that the writer bears full responsibility to prove that his or
her claims are true. Writers and speakers, especially when cornered with
tough questions, often speak authoritatively, but they sometimes assume that
their assertions are valid and place the onus of proof onto the audience.
When debating any issue, there is an implicit
burden of proof on the person asserting a claim. "If this responsibility or burden of proof is shifted to a critic,
the fallacy of appealing to ignorance is committed.”
This particularly dishonest fallacy turns the real world
into an asylum.
The British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand
Russell (1872–1970) wrote that if he claims that a teapot orbits the Sun
somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, it is nonsensical for him to
expect others to believe him on the grounds that they cannot prove him wrong.
Russell's teapot is still referred as an argument against the burden of proof
fallacy.
In fact all those who are into baloney selling made a
systematic use of this misleading concept.
