Skepticism, at the heart, is about asking questions and finding answers in order to form a better understanding of something. On this website, and many others, you will already find information about the scientific method, which is the method of inquiry we all use to establish what we know at a given moment. You can thank thousands of people who lived before you for using science to make sense of the world around you (and keep you alive in a world full of bacteria, viruses, and flora and fauna that are also trying to survive, and do not care about your agenda). Science is not a noun, it is a verb, and it is always in motion. With that said, we do not all know how to use it properly, and often are met with conflicting evidence and differing opinions. Science has given us the tools to seek what we currently know, but we must train ourselves to weed through the arguments made for a certain knowledge in order to validate it. Traditionally, great minds build from one another, and a peer review process boasts or refutes the ideas of one in order to separate the more rational and factual from the personal biases of the thinker.
One way that can help to separate the wheat from the chaff (rational from irrational), is to recognize logical fallacies. If you are able to expose the pitfalls someone has taken in their argument, you can refute the validity of their claims. This is in light of not having conflicting evidence (one person may be very well prepared to defend their position, yet unaware that they have built it out of false notions-- the other needs to expose these notions). This is your first step in defending the scientific method. Without the rigor of editing and reviewing, we would not have the technology and education we have today (we would not have survived-- those that are wrong need to know and fix it).
Rather than list the logical fallacies, there are a few websites that make it very clear what they are and how they are used.
It is worth noting that it doesn't matter if you win an argument-- rarely do those that make logical fallacies change their mind or admit defeat (they remain ignorant). You can only take comfort in the fact that you used a tried and true process to help get to the root of what someone is trying to understand. The natural world doesn't care if you think you are wrong or right-- it just is.
Good Science!
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