phillip1882, on 04 January 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:
I dunno, does B really commit a logical fallacy?
if the argument went like this instead:
person A: God exists.
person B: please point me to a credible source that can verify the existence of God.
would this be an argument from ignorance? I mean, by the same logic, person B hasn't really refuted person A's statement, nor is it clear how he could do so.
The logical fallacy in your example is made by Person A. For Person A to claim that 2 + 2 = 4 is not the same to say that "God exists". The first claim is a truth statement. One cannot argue it is false if all agree on definitions of (2,4,+,=), all such arguments must lead to some type of logical fallacy. However, the claim that "God [does] exist" is not a truth statement if all agree on definitions of terms. Equally valid is the claim "God [does not] exist". It is a logical fallacy by Person A to claim that any specific entity, such as God, must by definition have the attribute of existence. Imo, where Person A would be on logically sounder ground concerning what exists would be to claim, Existence exists.