In the Ethics of Belief, William Clifford talks about an Island where a religion that did not discuss sin or eternal punishment. Rumors outside of the Island talked about professors of the religion kidnapping children in an effort to force them to practice this religion by controlling the laws for their own personal gain. Eventually, an investigation was done on this matter that revealed there was no incriminating evidence to uphold these claims and that no kidnappings had ever occurred.
Clifford states that while the instigators of these accusations sincerely believed that they were trying to save these children, they also had no reason to believe the evidence before them as it was based on prejudice and rumors, not actual injuries or facts which is the practical significance for why we have a legal system that states “innocent until proven guilty due to sufficient evidence.” The arguments they used were neither sound nor valid, as while the people did practice a religion that did not discuss sin or eternal punishment that does not mean that they must be kidnapping children to spread their religion; therefore making the conclusion false meaning the argument is invalid and not sound. These people fell victim to a bandwagon fallacy idea of that just because everyone off the island believes that these people were kidnapping children means it must be true due to an appeal of their emotions because they believed that they were trying to save kidnapped children.
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Veronica Spicer 