A Red Herring

Aaron has started a "Pomo Preschool" on his blog so I wanted to start a school, as well. Mine will be called "Fallacy Academy" and I will try to offer you insight on how to recognize bad reasoning...the only problem with this class is that when you are done with it, you will be able to point out MY bad reasoning.

I will start with a red herring. (Don't ever say that to a waiter).

First of all, according to Wikipedia, a red herring, also referred to as a kipper, is a dried, smoked, herring. The curing process turns the fish red. (What would we do without Wikipedia!)

A red herring was used by people who trained hunting dogs. They would put out a scent they wanted tracked and then, draw a red herring across the track to train the dog to stay on the scent and not be distracted.

So, a red herring is when an irrlevant point is introduced to an argument to divert attention from the topic at hand and win the argument...in other words, you change the subject.

I've heard this argument used a lot in the past year and always fell for it...


Linda: There was something unbiblical about what was said at church last night.

Anonymous Person: Well, first of all, you are aware, aren't you, that there is no such thing as a perfect church?

At this point, Linda became distracted from her original point of talking about what she thought was wrong, and began discussing whether or not there was a perfect church! She followed a red herring.

Here's another one:

Linda: Someone actually told us that as the husband is the head of the wife, the pastor is the head of the church.

Person: Well, don't you think that the husband is the head of the family, I do.

Red herring...we are now discussing husbands.

The red herring argument is one of my favorites mostly because I like its name. I think I will use it more often.

So, a red herring is an introduction of an irrlevant point to an argument to avoid the question and win the argument.