Dear Friam members, As those of you in the mother church are already aware, I have been trying to foment a conversation about what rationality consists of and how does it relate to a purported scientific consensus. I assume that you are all, more or less, rational people. How exactly, then, did each of you come to the conclusion that, say, animal fats do or do not cause heart disease, smoking does or does not cause cancer, human activity does or does not cause global warming, that tick bites do (or do not) cause a syndrome called chronic Lyme disease, that, say, beet powder improves metabolism (?), or that turmeric does or does not alleviate arthritis. Or, perhaps more important, how did you decide to act on these beliefs? Or not?
A friend of mine is always trying to change my eating habits and now assaults me with evidence that red meat, particularly if processed, is increasing my risk of cancer. She includes in her email several links that are designed to convince me. I include those below. The question I would like us to consider is not really the substance of the matter. I am effing 77 years old, with a dozen things wrong with me that are likely to kill me long before tomorrow's hotdog will. I am more interested in the process by which each of you will decide whether or not to change your habits on the basis of this new evidence, or try to change the habits of your children or grandchildren. In what sense will that process be "reasonable?" Discuss. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ -----Original Message----- From: EMAIL Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 8:31 PM To: Nick Thompson <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Meat Here's a thoughtful look at what the WHO had to say about meat and cancer: http://examine.com/blog/scientists-just-found-that-red-meat-causes-cancer--o r-did-they/?utm_source=Examine.com+Insiders&utm_campaign=34d0d95b1b-Red_mead 10_27_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e4d662cb1b-34d0d95b1b-70203945&ct=t(R ed_mead10_27_2015)&goal=0_e4d662cb1b-34d0d95b1b-70203945&mc_cid=34d0d95b1b&m c_eid=3edf56d922 Apparently the WHO looked at 800 different studies. That's a lot of studies. Is it a meta study? R On Oct 27, 2015, at 4:40 PM, Nick Thompson wrote: > R > > I always wait for the metastudy. > > n > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > -----Original Message----- > From: EMAIL > Sent: Monday, October 26, 2015 3:35 PM > To: Nick Thompson <[email protected]> > Subject: Meat > > Nick, > > Are you freaking out about the meat/cancer news? Here's an article > that puts it in perspective: > > http://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2015/oct/26/me > at-and > -tobacco-the-difference-between-risk-and-strength-of-evidence?CMP=fb_a > -scien ce_b-gdnscience?CMP=fb_a-science_b-gdnscience > > . > > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
