Begging the Question

“Begging the question” means assuming the very thing you are trying to prove.

For example:

Premise 1. The Bible is the word of God, and thus everything it says is true.
Premise 2.The bible says that God exists

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Conclusion. Therefore, God exists.

This argument "begs the question". The conclusion has to be true for the first premise to be true. (Put another way, this argument would be unconvincing to anyone who is truly agnostic about the conclusion. If I am agnostic about God's existence, I would have no reason to accept premise 1.)

Notice that the charge of "begging the question" is a very specific objection to an argument.

It is not that the argument is invalid. (In fact, every time you beg the question, you've constructed a (trivially) valid argument.) Nor is the objection that the argument isn't sound. (It may be sound. It all depends on whether the conclusion is true.)

The charge is that the argument has no force. It is unconvincing and gives us no reason to accept the conclusion.