No, it very clearly isn't.
It is.
I suggest you familiarize yourself with the basics of logic, if you honestly believe "loaded language" constitutes a logical fallacy.
Inversion Fallacy.
Appealing to a definition when discussing the meaning of words is obviously not a logical fallacy.
Yes, it is.
No, it's not. Agreeing upon (or debating) the meaning of key words is a necessary step, but appealing to a dictionary as the authoritative source of a word definition is not a necessary step; that is in fact the appeal to false authority fallacy.
You seem to think anything that leaves you looking stupid must be a logical fallacy. It doesn't work that way.
No, I don't. A fallacy is an error of logic. That's all a fallacy is. It works much like a math error works...
If you want to redefine the word, that's fine. It's all just semantics. If you want "fetus" to mean, say, licorice-flavored cotton candy, then we can stipulate that and move on.
I just want to make sure we are talking about the same thing...
But it doesn't alter the underlying sense of the argument, which entails the right-wingers here trying to impose a category error, by treating the unborn and the born as the same thing
It might not be the same "thing", per se, but it most certainly is the same exact life... It just happens to be at a different stage of life, like a caterpillar vs a butterfly. That different stage of life doesn't give someone the right to murder it. Human life shouldn't only be sacred once it comes out of the womb (IF it is "wanted"); it should be sacred throughout the whole process (whether "wanted" or not).
and urging people to conclude that therefore what applies to the born (a right to life) must also apply to the unborn. The born have a right to life for a reason.
Why do the born have a right to life? Where does that right come from (what is the source of that right)?
If the unborn don't share that reason, then you'll need another justification for saying they have a right to life.
I would argue that the reason is shared. I would suppose we view the reasoning differently...
How about Merriam Webster, then:
"an unborn or unhatched vertebrate especially after attaining the basic structural plan of its kind specifically"
Okay, so to put a timetable on it, would you be okay with applying that definition to a human as "at approximately 8 weeks after conception until birth...", since approx. 8 weeks is when the life begins looking very human-like in appearance?
Sure: the warming of a globe.
Nope, that definition doesn't work. It is circular. It only makes reference to itself. Any argumentation based on it is a void argument.
It needs to refer to something outside of itself.
No. They are scientific ideas,
No, they are not "scientific ideas".
based on accumulated evidence,
Science is not "accumulated evidence". It is a set of falsifiable theories. Science does not make use of supporting evidence; only conflicting evidence.
and subject to falsification by future evidence.
So your "accumulated evidence" can be falsified by "accumulated evidence"? HUH? No, only conflicting evidence can falsify a theory... No amount of supporting evidence can bless, sanctify, make holy, etc. any theory of science...
It's funny that in making that accusation, you demonstrate an actual circular argument. You've offered no explanation for why they should be regarded as circular arguments, aside from your own assertion that they're circular arguments.
No, I didn't. A circular argument is defined as an argument which concludes with its initial predicate (in other words, to argue Y, therefore Y). Evolution does this, as it concludes from its predicate that current life forms evolved from other life forms over the course of millions/billions of years... The Big Bang Theory also does this, as it concludes from its predicate that a singularity "exploded" into the ever expanding universe that we live in today. Neither of those theories have been proven true (nor can they be). They can ultimately only be accepted or rejected on a faith basis (circular reasoning).
So? Many scientific ideas are about past unobserved events.
No, ZERO science is based on past unobserved events. Past unobserved events are not falsifiable, and science is a set of falsifiable theories.
For example, you find a volcano where the rock is composed of the kind of rock that you've seen formed by lava cooling many times around the world, and that you only ever find in areas where it's consistent with the theory that the rock was formed by the cooling of lava. However, you didn't actually see that particular rock form. It's a past unobserved event. Does that make it a religion to theorize that such rock was formed by cooling lava? Of course not.
Yes, it does, actually. Supporting evidence is not a proof. Religions are what make use of supporting evidence. Science, instead, makes use of conflicting evidence. The null hypothesis in this case would be to go back in time to see what actually happened. We don't have access to functional time machines. We can't test that theory against the null hypothesis to falsify it. It is unfalsifiable. Therefore, you are religiously believing that to be true (based on your supporting evidence for it).
If science were only possible with regard to present observed events, there'd be very little science to speak of.
There's plenty of theories of science. There are plenty of religious theories too...
Yes, of course, it's possible that a magical genie formed that rock, making it look like rock that we've seen formed from lava, and placed it next to a bunch of magma, with formations that are consistent with a former liquid flow, and that he only did so to fool us.
Precisely! That's precisely why your theory was a theory of religion rather than a theory of science...
But it's not unscientific to go with the simpler explanation, with so much going in favor of it.
Yes, it is. Science is a set of falsifiable theories. That's ALL science is. It has nothing to do with supporting evidence.
It's the same with evolution
A religion; not science.
This WAS a theory of science, but has since been falsified.
A religion, not science.
or the theory of anthropogenic greenhouse gas warming,
A religion, not science. In fact, this theory outright rejects currently standing theories of science, such as the laws of thermodynamics and the stefan boltzmann law. It also rejects logic and statistical mathematics.
Don't know enough about plate tectonics to comment intelligently...
They are, indeed. There are any number of possible pieces of evidence that, if found, could completely annihilate a theory like, say, global warming theory.
Supporting evidence doesn't falsify theories. Conflicting evidence does...
For example, maybe someone invents a new experiment that finds that although greenhouse gases absorb infrared light in some circumstances, when such gases are allowed to circulate freely, as in an atmosphere, they actually allow the infrared light to flow through unmolested, and maybe such an experiment is independently repeatedly replicated, such that the mechanism by which anthropogenic global warming was meant to have happened couldn't possible function, destroying the theory. Similarly, maybe, around the world, fossil records start finding evidence of fossil rabbits in the precambrian, with radioisotope evidence supporting that dating, in various sites around the world, completely pulverizing our idea of the evolutionary timeline and forcing the abandonment or complete reworking of the theory.
All of what you said here is just various examples of switching from one religion to a different religion based on the acceptance of a different set of supporting evidence. None of that is science in any way. It is purely religion... In order to be science, it would first have to be falsifiable. Then the theory would have to be tested against its null hypothesis and continue to survive that testing.