Does anyone know the name of the logical fallacy wherein one assumes, if a bad thing happens, it must have some bad cause? E.g. that if there's a plague, it's because we've been sinful, and God is punishing us.
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I'm looking for a slightly more general version, where one assumes that if something bad happens to X, it must be because someone (but not necessarily X) behaved badly.
E.g. in a plague supposedly brought on us by our sins, people die who weren't sinners. Babies for example.
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I guess this is somehow derived from the original sin theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin …) where humans are all doomed because of the sin of Adam.
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Intuitively, I want to agree with that and I think it plays a part but many polytheistic traditions have long standing practices of appeasing the gods via offerings or sacrifice, as well as seeing natural events as omens. Seems deeper than just a consequence of Christianity.
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It is called Theodicy
@paulg. - Show replies
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Illusion of causality
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I don’t know if this is a nail in the head but Christopher Hitchens would describe “God of the gaps”. The gaps which cannot be explained by science, is this evidence of the presence of God. He would also say it’s an ever receding line, with the gaps becoming smaller.
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This is interesting. I looked it up and what I found was something called structural sin and structural evil:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_evil …
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If not Just-World Fallacy or Divine Retribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_retribution … then just plain Magical Thinking. I don't know of another secular term that is a more precise fit.
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Karma. It’s nonsense.
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There is another psychological phenomenon where some people expect bad things to happen because good things have. Journalists love it. (Eg. couple murdered on honeymoon)
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