03-15-2012, 09:22 PM
People who use false information to support their beliefs. It's pretty common - people who believe a certain thing will seek out "proof" that they're right, and will simply go on insisting that they have evidence for being right, even if their evidence is false. Look, dude, you don't have to change your mind - but if you're in the right, why do you rely on false evidence to back up your case?
Other people have commented here about pro-lifers, and there is a huge tendency within that camp to do these sorts of things. Just in 2009, there was a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research claiming that abortion led to all sorts of mental health issues. Evidence has now surfaced showing that the study was terrible - so much that the journal has withdrawn it. Essentially, what it did was claim that, if a woman had ever been diagnosed with any mental health condition and had also, at some point, had an abortion,then the abortion had caused the mental health problem. Even if the mental health condition happened first, twenty years previous to the abortion. Even if the woman was depressed BECAUSE she had an unplanned pregnancy and no longer felt depressed after the procedure - this study still counted it as "abortion causes depression."
Science is important, facts are important. Science does NOT tell us what the moral way to live is, that's not it's job. What it does is give us evidence about what is true and what is effective, and we then use philosophy and theology to determine what the moral choice is. If you throw false garbage into that system, you'll end up with harmful beliefs - and harmful laws.
Other people have commented here about pro-lifers, and there is a huge tendency within that camp to do these sorts of things. Just in 2009, there was a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research claiming that abortion led to all sorts of mental health issues. Evidence has now surfaced showing that the study was terrible - so much that the journal has withdrawn it. Essentially, what it did was claim that, if a woman had ever been diagnosed with any mental health condition and had also, at some point, had an abortion,then the abortion had caused the mental health problem. Even if the mental health condition happened first, twenty years previous to the abortion. Even if the woman was depressed BECAUSE she had an unplanned pregnancy and no longer felt depressed after the procedure - this study still counted it as "abortion causes depression."
Science is important, facts are important. Science does NOT tell us what the moral way to live is, that's not it's job. What it does is give us evidence about what is true and what is effective, and we then use philosophy and theology to determine what the moral choice is. If you throw false garbage into that system, you'll end up with harmful beliefs - and harmful laws.