Correlation does not imply causation

Feeling involuntary urges to blink rapidly, jerk my head, and form facial grimaces, I was not your “typical” child. My classmates would often look at me in a peculiar way, laughing at each of my spasms. I was confused, but more than ever, I felt vulnerable to the idea of being a social outcast and thought that a solitary career was my only path in life. I was soon diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. My diagnosis proceeded to affect all those around me, including my parents and siblings, who…

The two main forms of incompatibilism are hard determinism and libertarianism. Hard determinism, as the name implies, is the position that universal determinism is certain and that free will does not exist, that “freedom of action is an illusion” (Green 134). Despite universal determinism being well-established by empirical evidence, quantum mechanics does not entirely support it. A uranium atom like U238 “is liable to lose an electron at some point in its existence,” but even our…

A notable feature of the precautionary principle is that though it does not fulfill itself the conditions to be scientific, it publicly addresses the problem of uncertainty, especially that of ignorance, which extends beyond science and cognition. Science has nothing to do with ignorance for ignorance extends its field to the outside of scientific knowledge. To this, Beck implies an ironic situation we human beings are put: “The fatal irony, into which scientific-technical…

difference regarding social awareness and a desensitization to multiculturalism. However a certain conclusion that can be drawn from this analysis is that something occurred in the 1960’s/1970’s that resulted in these changes. Unfortunately however, the correlation between the two variables is just below moderate. While there is a degree of influence, it is not particularly…

drugs… Though studies of large populations of people have indeed found that those who smoke marijuana are more likely to use other drugs, these studies show a correlation without showing causation — a commonly misunderstood phenomenon in science. In short, just became marijuana smokers might be more likely to later use, say, cocaine, does not imply that using marijuana causes one to use cocaine.…

While our actual food does not contain any actual Bisphenol A, the containers that they come in do. In a process that is called “leaching” or “migration”, Matthew Hoffman, MD, says, “It’s long been known that infinitesimal bits of plastic get into our food from containers. . . The chemical industry acknowledges that you can’t avoid this transfer.” The chemical industry does indeed state, “virtually all food packaging materials contain substances…

interval, or ratio. There must be a linear relationship between variables that is homoscedastic, which means that the spread of the data is equal throughout. However, a strong linear or correlational relationship does not mean that there is causation, which means that the author cannot imply that a baby before marriage will or will not influence the risk of divorce. The author can only say that the variables of marriage before or after baby and the time period of childbirth have a positive or…

Due to recent criminal fire arm attacks in Canada and North America, such as the Parliament Hill shooting on October 22, 2014, the debate about gun laws and restrictions has become a hot issue among Canadian citizens. Unfortunately, there are those who hold to the extremes on each end of the spectrum. Some, for example, will hold that if guns have little restrictions, our society will turn out to be some spaghetti-western-like world, while the other holds that if guns are restricted, our society…

The Impact of High-Fructose Corn Syrup on Health: Exorbitant Consumption Perhaps the most polarizing issue regarding high-fructose corn syrup is its impacts on human health. I believe that health is truly the greatest wealth and that it is in the best interests of an individual to carefully make decisions regarding what one should eat. Therefore, it is necessary for me to understand the underlying health risks associated with high-fructose corn syrup consumption. The consumption of…

A. Overview David M. Buss, a much-admired psychological researcher, has analyzed how the human mind has adapted to homicide and how behavioral evolution has altered how humans perceive and react to the act of homicide. He does this by conducting his own national research survey on modern-day people’s thoughts on murder and questions if they have ever considered killing another person before, and if so, why and under what circumstances. He investigates how homicides have changed over the decades,…