Bad thoughts 6

Two more bad thought issues are tackled in the last two chapters.

11. Bogus statistics. Statistics can sound very convincing, but it is a good habit not to believe them too quickly. Sometimes it does not in fact measure what the newsworthy conclusion says it does. A good example is, again, the news that "35% of British children live in poverty" which turned out to depend on an unusual understanding of "poverty": those who earn less than 60% of the national median income. Another typical example of bad statistics is the biased sample - if the statement reads that "15% of men use the Ecstacy drug" but the sample was drawn from people at rave parties (a scene that is somewhat notorious for use of Ecstacy) of youths aged 18 to 25, you have a biased sample.

12. Morality fever. I found this one useful. Something bothers you when you hear it, but you're not quite sure what the real problem is ... To summarise, it amounts to the idea that "what is wicked is false" and "what is beneficial is true". Jamie Whyte's simple example of belief in God highlights the point (religion and politics seem to top the areas he draws examples from). Apparently in debates about the existence of God, believers often cite the fact that they find comfort in their beliefs during distress. Logically though, comfort can be found in that belief regardless of whether it is true (i.e. that God exists). It is, in short, irrelevant to the issue of the existence of God. (A child finds joy in the existence of the Tooth Fairy - but does that make the Tooth Fairy objectively real? That was not merely a leading question. The answer is in fact: no.) Another example may be Giordano Bruno's contention that the earth revolves around the sun. "It is heresy!", they said. And burned him at the stake. The fact that heresy is bad seemed to be all the refutation needed. I just found this quote of Bruno's which I think is relevant in this context: "Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."