Don’t Confuse Me with Facts

I can be downright intolerant toward people like climate deniers and anti-vaxxers who don’t believe in science; but if I stop to think, I can understand them. Many of their ridiculous beliefs are just common sense, sort of.

Will vaccine protect me from Covid? Not necessarily. Even with two Pfizer shots, I am only 95% protected, according to scientific studies. So why would a person get a shot that won’t provide absolute protection, and will probably hurt, when that person is 100% certain that he or she might not get the virus without the shot and might get the virus even with the shot? That is common sense. I didn’t say common sense is always smart.

Think about the folks who don’t believe in evolution, despite the scientists saying that all the covid variations are evolution at work. As far as common sense goes, I can’t see any difference in viruses. If evolution were real, humans would be getting smarter. Scientific observation will confirm that’s not the case, or we would all believe in evolution. See there?

A few still believe the earth is flat. Common sense is completely on their side. Well, not completely. In Iowa the earth is flat, but in Montana it is bumpy. But if the earth were round, people on the bottom would obviously fall off. If the earth were spinning around at roughly 1000 miles an hour, we would fly off into space. Common sense.

Common sense says the sun goes around the earth, not the other way around. The Bible is very clear about that. The writer of Ecclesiastes in chapter 1, verse 5, says, “The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises.” Well, duh. Anyone can see that. What you can’t see is the earth turning.

So far I’m being facetious about not believing science, but there are some “scientific facts” I don’t believe. Scientific classification says that a tomato is a fruit rather than a vegetable. Because of scientists, Merriam Webster defines it this way: “Any thing that grows on a plant and is the means by which that plant gets its seeds out into the world is a fruit.”

By the scientific classification method, tomatoes, bell peppers, string beans, pea pods (but not the peas “they are seeds”), jalapaῆo peppers, corn, and olives are all fruit.

Of course I don’t believe that. Tomatoes and all that other stuff except jalapaῆos taste like vegetables. Jalapaῆos must be a spice. Not facts, but common sense.

Scientific classification says Old World buffalo (Cape buffalo and water buffalo) are native to Africa and Asia. Bison are found in North America and Europe. Both bison and buffalo are in the bovidae family, but the two are not closely related.

No one in Montana believes that. I have seen buffalo in Yellowstone Park with my own eyes. I have seen buffalo on the National Bison Range near Charlo. OK, I am slipping into Trump-land where something is true if lots of other non-scientific people believe it. Face it, on some topics we are all in this together where we don’t know everything and wouldn’t much care if we did.

Of course, it doesn’t make much difference to our lives whether we think a tomato is a vegetable, or the sun goes around the earth, or bison are buffalo.

It doesn’t make any difference to our daily lives if we believe vaccines are more dangerous than non-vaccines. Unless of course we get the virus and die. Or worse, get a mild case and pass it on to kill someone’s grandparents. Then it’s deadly dumb.

Not believing that we need to do something to address climate change won’t make any difference in our lives. We could even join Montanans for Climate Change, hoping that winters for us old Montana people will get so warm we won’t even think about Arizona, and we will have beach front property on the other side of the Big Belt Mountains. Of course, hundreds of millions will die all over the world in the future if nothing is done, but we will be gone by then, so who cares?

What are we having for dessert tonight, Pat? Tomatoes? Really? Don’t try to confuse me with facts. Judging by my lack of action on doing my part pushing for action on climate change and overcoming anti-vax fears, I’m not that different from the science deniers. I have met the enemy and he is me.

About admin

Rusty Harper is outrageously happy because he is retired and living with the love of his life, Pat Callbeck Harper in Helena, Montana. So why does he inflict these ramblings on the rest of us, you ask? Because you deserve it. If you aren't smart enough not to read this stuff, then you have to suffer through it. Maybe that builds character, though I doubt it. Think of all the positive things you could do with the time you are wasting on things that occur to me in the night and then sound strange even to me when I write them down in the morning. Bake a cake. Complain to your Senator. Run for Congress. Do something.
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