Logical Fallacy of False Attribution

The Logical Fallacy of False Attribution occurs when a quote or opinion is attributed to a source that is not the true source in order to lend false credibility, false authority, or ad hominem attack.

Examples of the Logical Fallacy of False Attribution

“Mom said you should give me five dollars so I can go to McDonald's."

If Mom said this, it's one thing, but it's quite a different thing if Mom said no such thing.

“The Bible says that Iraq will be the center of the economic world in the end."

The Bible doesn't talk. God speaks through the Bible. This isn't in the text, so it is either extra-Biblical Divine revelation or human speculation. Denominations are formed because people get into the habit of saying that the Bible says what is not written in the Bible. The Bible can say anything you want it to say if you allow yourself even a single assumption.

“Science says that evolution [molecules-to-man] is a fact."

Science doesn't talk. It may be that the speaker is slyly defining science as the opinions of only those scientists who believe in evolutionism.

The hoax email falsely attributes a statement to a famous person or a publication that never published such a thing.

Washington Irvin, Auguste Comte, Antoine-Jeane Letronne, and Andrew Dickson White used their combined influences to perpetrate a hoax complete with false attribution of something that never existed: the flat Earth belief. There was never a general acceptance of a flat Earth. Not only did they make up the idea that it was generally believed that the Earth was flat, but they also attributed this belief to the Church. This is now known as "the flat Earth myth." Using the false attribution fallacy, some teachers and textbooks that are in existence today are educating people into ignorance using this is also a hoax, made up by a few people in the 1800s and 1900s. They attribute the claims of the hoax to the Christian Church, to the Bible, and to anyone who won't believe whatever hoax they are currently trying to perpetrate. When you hear a slur using the term, "flat Earth," it is a signal to be very skeptical of the claims of the person using the slur.