Red Herring

Red Herring, Smoke Screen, Wild Goose Chase

The red herring is a diversionary tactic that distracts the opponent away from the real point under discussion. Red herring topics are irrelevant to the point under discussion, and serve to take the heat off an already weak argument.

Creation versus evolution discussion groups provide many examples of creationists tossing red herrings into debate. The smoke screens are very often other fallacies of logic that serve to distract the evolutionist. For this reason, creationists consistently provide abundant examples of illogic for those who wish to practice spotting fallacious debate.

Whatever the red herring, debaters are best advised not to take the bait.

Quo Vadis?
...section index...