Logical Fallacy of  Appeal to Humor / Appeal to Ridicule / Reductio Ad Ridiculum

The logical fallacy of  appeal to humor / appeal to ridicule / reductio ad ridiculum occurs when humor, usually ridicule or sarcasm, is used to divert attention away from the discussion or to make the other side appear foolish. It is an attempt to lose the issue in the laugh. Some would say that when someone’s belief is worthy of ridicule then it’s OK to use ridicule. However, it is best to be respectful in all cases.

Examples of the Logical Fallacy of  Appeal to Humor / Appeal to Ridicule / Reductio Ad Ridiculum

Bill Nye the Science (actually, atheist/evolution) Guy is a great example, using this technique successfully when confronted by Eric Hovind.

It is best to avoid sarcasm, scorn, or ridicule. It is legitimate to use humor to lighten the mood, but never to insult the other person or as a smoke screen when you don ‘t have a real answer. If humor reveals truth, it is valid, but make sure that you have real logic with no fallacies to back it up. Do not depend on humor or ridicule rather than truth.

The liberal press knew that Scopes would be found guilty at the Scopes Monkey Trial, so they created a very successful attack using ridicule rather than dealing with the facts.

Evolution has used the tactic of ridicule against anyone who will not bow the knee to Darwin right from the publishing of Darwin’s book. Many church leaders did bow to this. It is very effective.

"Yeah, I don't believe the myths told in the bible just like I don't believe in the tooth fairy."

It is common for the ungodly to use ridicule to discredit Christians who believe the Bible as it is written. This includes remarks comparing belief in God to belief in Thor, the Easter Bunny,  Santa Clause, etc. Note that the word, myth, also presupposes biblical inaccuracy. Not capitalizing the title of a book is bad grammar, but it is used to show disrespect for the Bible in this case, so there is a lot going on in such a short sentence.

"You are an idiot. You are saying that hydrogen is an inert gas which over time turns into people.”

It would be disrespectful to says, “You are an idiot. You are saying that hydrogen is an inert gas which over time turns into people.” However, if you keep a respectful tone, you could ask the following types of questions that point out that something is far fetched: “Are you saying that everything started as hydrogen gas and that hydrogen gas eventually turned into people?” This is actually admitted by people who believe in the spontaneous generation of the creation without God.  “Are you saying that we all came from stardust? If so, do you have some explanation about how that happened?” “It sounds very much like you are saying that nothing created everything. Help me out here so I can understand what you are saying.” “It really sounds like you are saying that life came from pond scum and then all the various forms of life developed from that. Is that your impression of what happened, and what makes you think so?”