fact or myth..biology related statements
Question answered by honorarykid in Scientology
quita_03 asked this question on 9/27/2000:
can you please tell me which of the following are facts, and
which of the following are myhts, and please explain why?
1. if birds stored energy as carbohydrates instead of fat, they
would weigh so much they couldn't fly. fact or fiction....why?
2. the hydra, an organism the size of a pencil, has fewer
chromosomes than an aligator. fact or fiction....why?
3. celery has zero calories. fact or fiction....why?
4. bacteria reproduces so rapidly that the number of bacteria
produced in just two days surpasses the number of human ever
lived. fact or fiction....why?
5. spider silk is stringer than steel. fact or fiction....why?
6. there are more cells in you body than there are stars in the
Milky Way.
7. muscles get sore during exercise because they overheat. fact
or fiction....why?
honorarykid gave this response on 9/28/2000:
These questions are not topical to the subject of this forum,
Scientology.
The only facet of your questions which even remotely ties to
the subject matter, is the tacit implication that people are
routinely believing in things which they believe to be
scientifically "proven" facts, even if those things aren't true.
I don't think it's reasonable for anyone to assume they are
completely free from believing in a scientific fallacy or two.
There is simply too much information out there to stay 100%
accurately informed.
At the same time, our modern culture (which, in spite of it's
flaws, generally serves our individual biological needs quite
well) has well established institutions dedicated to pumping
out misleading claims, which carelessly promote bad science,
and which both accidentally and intentionally promote
scientific misunderstanding. At the same time, our own
psychological neediness for explanations for things about
which science can offer no explanation, makes us grasp for
any and all explanations, even irrational ones. When we need,
we become less critical, and more credulous when it comes
to evaluating false claims.
But on the other hand, neither can it be argued that all types
of fallacious beliefs about scientific claims carry equal risks.
For example, you asked the question about the number of
calories in celery.
I have heard it said, from many different people that it
actually consumes more calories to eat and digest a piece of
celery than the celery contains. I don't know if that's
actually a true statement. And I don't really care. If I
believed this, and it was false, that would not change the
fact that celery is very low in calories, has good fiber for my
lower GI, and can be safely consumed whether I'm dieting or
not.
But, on the other hand, if I began claiming that celery was a
miracle diet food, and if I started a cult for overweight people
around the consumption of celery, and if I said the members
of my cult could eat nothing else but celery, and if I said
they also had to give me all their money, and could never
criticize me, and if they did all this, they would be forever
happy, thin and fulfilled, it's a slam dunk that believing these
false claims carries far greater risks and dangers than the
earlier, milder form of celery delusion.
I think the main thing is to inculcate an appreciation for the
scientific method, to help our children to grow up with skills
to recognize when self-serving interests are behind certain
claims.
In owning this set of skills, we make it harder for charlatans
and advertisers and hucksters to fool us, and in so doing, we
discourage many of them from unethical attempts.
We should, if we value the truth, never become so dogmatic
as to believe we know everything. We should always be
willing to accept new evidence, even if that runs counter to
what we currently believe.
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