LFotW: The Moving Goalpost

A method of denial - arbitrarily moving the criteria for "proof" or acceptance out of range of whatever evidence currently exists. Creationists are most famous for this fallacy. In Darwin’s time they argued that in order for evolution to be true there would need to be a method of inheritance that allowed for new variation to persist and propagate, rather than merely become diluted in the larger population. Mendel’s discovery of “genes” fit the bill. They then argued that if evolution were true there should be many transitional fossils, but no number of transitional fossil discoveries seems to be enough to satisfy them. Intelligent Designers now argue that evolution cannot explain the appearance of biochemical pathways and microscopic structures – but as these pathways and structures are rapidly being explained they simply continue to move the goalpost further and further back.