There are many fallacies that can turn your argument into an illogical mess, but there's one that carries more smugness and condescension than any other, and that is the faulty appeal to authority.

But before we talk about that fallacy, including when Christians committed, you should know that four out of five dentists recommend subscribing to the Council of Trent.

And they say if you really

want fresh breath, support our channel at trendhornpodcast.com. Now, a fallacy is just bad

reasoning, and the appeal to authority becomes bad reasoning when you say X is true simply because

an authority says it's true, especially if it's an invalid authority. For example, when I

discuss Catholicism with former Catholics, a lot of times their objections are to a misunderstanding

about church teaching rather than what the church actually teaches. Venerable Fulton Sheen

put it this way. There are not 100 people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there

are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be. I've heard people

tell me that the church teaches that a person could be stuck in purgatory forever, or that the

Catholic Church doesn't bury stillborn children because they never took a first breath, both of

which are not true. When I asked the person

how he knows this, they say, well, I went to Catholic school for 12 years. If I had a nickel,

for every time I've heard this particular authority claim, I would never be stressed out about

paying for my children's Catholic schooling. But even alleged theologians will make ridiculous

claims about what the church

teaches. They then puff up their claim with their doctorate that they got at some liberal

university that practices Catholic cosplay. In either case, you can nullify those authority claims

by asking the person to show you the specific, magisterial, or church documents, especially the

catechism of the Catholic Church, that says the church teaches their ridiculous statement.

This is also a good strategy when Susan from the parish council wants to defend some

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