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What fallacy asserts proof in the absense of denial?

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Original Question

My mother and I were arguing on email about the alleged 2011 killing of Osama Bin Laden.


I argued no solid evidence stands to this day for such an incident.


My mother argued the Pakistani government did not deny the alleged killing. But I found this statement to be fallacious.


She on and off uses fallacies when arguing with me on politics and social issues, but I cannot seem to identify this one.


I think I sent her the link to the wrong fallacy Argument from ignorance , which actually puts my requirement for evidence as fallacious.


I did some online searching, but this seems to come closest to Argument from silence .

Answers

2

RE: 2011 killing of Osama Bin Laden.


"I argued no solid evidence stands to this day for such an incident."


There are volumes of personal accounts written by the forces who killed him, plus the DNA collected by those same troops to identify and confirm it was indeed  OBL. What to speak of the realtime footage of the OBL assassination. To say there is no evidence is a ridiculous statement and Ad Ignorantium fallacy itself.  The claim is nothing more than the stuff of nonsensical Conspiracy Theory.  The same idiocy that claims we never landed on the moon. 


The claim that the Pakistani government never denied it is a weak argument. The truth is they not only did not deny it, they vociferously and openly denounced the raid as an invasion of their sovereign territory. 


I would add if you've not been able to find the overwhelming evidence it is probably because much of it is still classified. The other reason, aside from being totally absurd, would be egregious confirmation bias. 


 

As Carl Sagan famously said, absence of evidence is evidence of nothing. The failure to deny might, depending upon the circumstances, indicate a reason for further investigation, but it is not evidence.

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