I don’t think this is an adequate rendition of a circular argument. A circular argument is one that contains a conclusion that is identical to a premise; it should in principle be very easy to detect, provided your argument-evaluator is capable of comprehending language efficiently.
“God exists because the Bible says so, and the Bible is the word of God,” is circular, because the Bible can’t be the word of God unless God exists. This is not actually the argument you evaluate however; the one you evaluate is, “The bible exists and claims to be the word of God; therefore it is more likely that God exists.” That argument is not circular (though it is not very strong).
The other argument is just… weirdly phrased. Cloud-trails are caused by things. Significant other evidence suggests those things also have certain properties. We call those things “electrons.” There’s nothing circular about that. You’ve just managed to phrase it in an odd manner that is structurally similar to a circular argument by ignoring the vast network of premises that underlies it.
Similarly, slippery slopes simply fail because they don’t articulate probabilities or they assign far higher probabilities than are justified by the evidence. “Legalizing marijuana may herald the Apocalypse” is true for certain, extremely small values of “may.” If you say it will do so, then your argument should fail because it simply lacks supporting evidence. I’m not sure there’s as much action here as you say.
I don’t think this is an adequate rendition of a circular argument. A circular argument is one that contains a conclusion that is identical to a premise; it should in principle be very easy to detect, provided your argument-evaluator is capable of comprehending language efficiently.
“God exists because the Bible says so, and the Bible is the word of God,” is circular, because the Bible can’t be the word of God unless God exists. This is not actually the argument you evaluate however; the one you evaluate is, “The bible exists and claims to be the word of God; therefore it is more likely that God exists.” That argument is not circular (though it is not very strong).
The other argument is just… weirdly phrased. Cloud-trails are caused by things. Significant other evidence suggests those things also have certain properties. We call those things “electrons.” There’s nothing circular about that. You’ve just managed to phrase it in an odd manner that is structurally similar to a circular argument by ignoring the vast network of premises that underlies it.
Similarly, slippery slopes simply fail because they don’t articulate probabilities or they assign far higher probabilities than are justified by the evidence. “Legalizing marijuana may herald the Apocalypse” is true for certain, extremely small values of “may.” If you say it will do so, then your argument should fail because it simply lacks supporting evidence. I’m not sure there’s as much action here as you say.