Absolute, and, Total Denial

Yes, it certainly is a cognitive bias when there’s just a blanket denial and no deceptive distraction from the claim or assertion at hand.

I just has this discussion about the historicity of the Moses and Exodus account in the Tanakh. The acclaimed Biblical scholar Dick Hertfeld simply and correctly pointed out that the vast majority of scholarly consensus agrees that it is a national foundation myth and that there is no empirical evidence (after exhaustive research) that it actually occurred. This is undeniably accurate. There is no direct empirical evidence. Period. There are valid arguments for and against, but it is undeniable there is zero empirical evidence to support the events as retold in Exodus.

Many Christian, Jewish and secular scholars acknowledge this fact. Many still believe in the story nevertheless, but the claim has nothing to do with belief or faith, and only with evidence and consensus.

As you would expect, an eager zealot jumped in and like Clark Kent in a telephone booth identified himself as a Fundamentalist Christian and the only proof he needed was that it was in the inerrant Bible. He then claimed to have special dispensation and understanding above the rest of humanity because of his status as a Christian. Mmm, okay.

Well, his faith, beliefs and the inerrancy of the Bible had nothing to do with the original claim. These were just deceptive distractions designed to veer away from the discussion at hand. At that point the paralogical fallacies started mounting rapidly. A whole litany of Red Herrings, Strawmen, and special claims to match Dr. Bo’s exhaustive list. Of course the poor fellow had no idea of His own fallacious claims and immediately veered off into creationism, atheism, pseudoscience and a host of non-sequiturs that had nothing to do with the Original Post. So, yes, it was profound bias that quickly descended into a fallacy extravaganza.

This would fit more under a cognitive bias since denial itself is generally not within the context of an argument.