A Bad Argument

Throughout life we have many occasions of persuading others to believe a certain thing or being persuaded by others. There's nothing wrong with exchanging facts to try to defend or refute certain claims, but there's one line of reasoning that just bugs me: "It's true whether you believe it or not."

Now hang on a second. How does the person actually expect their audience to respond to that? It seems that they expect the audience to say, "Well, even though I don't believe it, he says that it's true so I'll start believing it." I hope that nobody is foolish enough to blindly trust one person's assertion without agreeing with any of the supporting facts. The message that this argument carries is, "My belief in this is better or stronger than your lack of belief in it." Such a message is often counterproductive to the person's argument because it reduces their credibility.

People may be hesitant to believe a new concept for a variety of reasons: It sounds too good to be true (or too bad to be true), it doesn't harmonize with another believe they hold, or perhaps they're just not that interested in it. Rather than trying to pressure a person to believe in something, it's usually more effective to give them time to process it and ask questions.

However, there is a time and a place for the argument I'm discussing here. Sometimes a person tries unsuccessfully to convince a skeptical audience of his belief, and it can be tempting for him to reconsider whether he truly believes the thing to be true. Sometimes, it's good for the person to assure himself (silently), "It's true whether they believe it or not."