A “tradition” is a belief, idea, practice, policy, or ritual, etc., held or followed by custom, being long-standing or long-established and handed down over time through a community, group, or organization, etc. – perhaps many centuries – and, with this passage of time and repetition, the idea or action becomes more venerated – even when no adequate grounds for it can be produced.

Some traditions begin and continue because of good reasons: the belief is clearly true or the practice effective. Others, however, become entrenched in the absence of rational justification, such as various religious doctrines. The simple fact that the policy or practice has persisted for a lengthy period (‘lasted’) imbues it in the minds of supporters with a special status which must not be challenged or overturned, or is seen as not deserving of criticism or adverse comment: and carrying the implication that if the claim or practice were mistaken it would not have been believed or persisted for so long. For example, members of a religious sect observe and exhort a doctrine which includes a requirement that women “respect” men, meaning that they be submissive and subservient towards men, with any departures dealt with severely: a “time-honoured tradition” in the system of beliefs.

Bloodletting has been widely considered an effective ‘curative’ for many ailments until as recently as the eighteenth century – indeed it was standard practice for centuries throughout continental Europe and Great Britain.

The continued use of torture by civil authorities – initiated by papal decree in the thirteenth century and enduring for this purpose into at least the sixteenth century – to advance the activities of the Holy Roman Church’s Inquisition in combating the perceived threat of heresy and later in pursuit of ‘witches’ owes a debt, in part, to a justification that it was a “tried and true” procedure with the underlying assumption that if something has been believed for a long time does not this provide evidence that it is true? (see: appeal to ignorance) Under such circumstances confessions can be induced whether or not the accused were actually heretics: a kind of self-fulfilling prophesy on the part of Inquisitors.

(see also: presumption, faith, fallacy, burden of proof, straw man, poisoning the well, begging the question, appeal to ignorance, false dilemma, red herring, appeal to authority, two wrongs make a right, slippery slope, special pleading, nominal error, suppressed evidence, Van Gogh fallacy, Domino theory, topical incompleteness, background information, myside bias, presumption, assumption, context, claim, evidence, conclusion, establish, support, ground, justification, controversies, supposition, presupposition, predisposition)