Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to "Like religions, they can't all be right, but they certainly could all be wrong"

re: "Like religions, they can't all be right, but they certainly could all be wrong"
ER — (archived)

Correlation is not causation.

IF food blessers live longer (which I doubt), perhaps its because they are comforted by their beliefs and less suceptible to stress-related diseases. Not because the food has been made more nutritious by god.

It is known that people who pray heal faster and get sick less often, but it has also been shown that it doesn't matter what religion they are, which suggests it is the act of prayer which is beneficial, not any supernatural agent (a placebo effect, which is also very real).

Even so, even if these facts are true, they cannot be established by anecdotal observation, they must be proven by statistical studies. It's like the guy who says "My uncle Ernie smoked three packs a day and he's still kicking at 93, while my aunt Edna never smoked in her life and caught lung cancer as a teenager. That proves nothing by itself.

I submit that even if astrology worked, it would be impossible to design a study that demonstrated it convincingly and the testimony of astrologers should automatically be suspect.

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