Science Forums 2

[HydrogenBond]

One of the problems that makes it harder to reduce the rate of obesity, is because science creates too many excuses. All these excuses are created by empirical science. Although empirical correlation may show useful trends in populations, it does not firmly point the finger to you, you or you. As such, if you are part of a population, you get to use the excuse even if there is no cause and effect for you as an individual.

For example, if one made a valid correlation that showed that purple people are more prone to obesity, and I am a purple person, and want to eat more, I can use this excuse and say it is in my ethnic makeup. I am covered by the umbrella. If I start to exercise and get bored I can say, why do I bother, I am purple and purple people have been shown to be bigger than other groups.

If a study could correlate auto exhaust and obesity, I could use that as an excuse to go to the big city for dining. The traffic is particularly bad today, which may explain why I crave two desserts. Empirical science organizes the data in ways where there is plenty of room under a bunch of umbrellas for people who don't belong in the world of cause and effect.

Let me give an example how the umbrella effect works. The family is planning a camping trip. Before we go, we will do a bunch of studies. One study states that particular date shows an increase incident of rain based on historical data over 100 years. A random sampling of camps sites shows there are an average of 0.1 ant hills on each site, which has doubled the risks from last year. If I don't want to go camping, but wish to stay home, I now have two good scientific excuses, which may not occur on that day on that site, when the family gets there. If we didn't have this umbrella, I would have no scientific excuse to stay home. It would look irrational.