Fallacies Can be Dangerous
THERE are many mistaken ideas in circulation, like bogus money passed off as the real thing. Few people are badly hurt by a phony penny; but a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill is another matter. In the same way some fallacies are comparatively harmless, while others can be definitely dangerous. For the sake of clear, straight thinking, though, it is to our benefit to dismiss all such mistaken ideas from mind.
You have heard it said, no doubt, that the color red will provoke a bull to rage; that it is proper to lift a rabbit by its ears; that a seashell, held to the ear, echoes the ocean’s roar. Can these popular notions stand up under investigation?
Unless you expect to cross a meadow where there is a bull on the loose, you may not be too concerned about that animal’s reaction to color. But experiments have shown that he is color-blind. If you do not believe it, you could try waving a cloth of another color. It can produce the same results, since it is the movement that attracts the bull’s attention and results in his charge.
If you believe it is cruel to lift pussycat by the tail, perhaps you should think twice before picking up bunny rabbit by his ears. Naturalists report that rabbits’ ears are quite sensitive and claim that it is cruel to use them as handles.
And that roar you hear in the seashell—does it not sound like the sea breaking upon the shore? Well, it is the peculiar form of the shell that picks up and blends the echoes of many nearby sounds into a muffled complex that can fool the uninformed. It might be worth while to experiment with the shell in some completely quiet place where there are no echoes to be picked up.
Fallacies of the Past
Many a popular belief of past generations has now been entirely rejected. Progress of knowledge exposes the fallacies and casts them aside as old wives’ tales. Who, for instance, would now subscribe to the idea that the earth is flat or that the sun moves around a motionless earth?
For centuries there were efforts to discover the recipe for a potion that would give everlasting life to the one drinking it. In Europe and America credence was given to the existence somewhere of a “Fountain of Youth,” supposedly having healing powers and the ability to make old persons young. Explorer Ponce de Leon even sought this fountain in Florida.
Others soberly searched for a supposed philosophers’ stone that was said to have the power to turn all metals into gold. Also, there were many expeditions sent out to locate an imagined El Dorado in the northern part of South America—a place where, it was said, gold was so common as to be used in walls and roofs.
It was also commonly believed in times past that life generates spontaneously from decaying matter. Did persons not have the proof—maggots that eventually appeared on rotting flesh or other foodstuffs? It did not occur to them that flies had laid their eggs there. Interesting, too, that this discredited idea is not so different from the evolutionary teaching that life generated spontaneously in the slime and ooze of a bygone age!
Common Fallacies Today
Even today there are fallacies commonly held. Some of these have little effect on people one way or the other. For example, there is the belief that the stomach is the chief organ of digestion. But the fact is that food begins to digest when mixed with saliva in the mouth. And it is now generally known that the small intestine does most of the digesting, after the food has left the stomach.
Another common belief is that hair can turn gray suddenly by emotional shock. But this is not true. Hair becomes gray gradually. It cannot turn gray suddenly, since pigment is deposited in hair before it grows out of the skin. Dermatologists say on the subject of ‘turning gray suddenly’: “Only people with a certain rare disease go partially bald suddenly, losing their dark pigmented hair overnight, retaining just their grey hair.”
It is true that fallacious notions such as this have not resulted in peril to anyone. And were this true of every fallacy, the subject would hardly be worth considering.
Dangerous Misconceptions
But some erroneous ideas can be dangerous, even fatal. For example, there is the widely held notion that frostbite should be rubbed with snow. The fact is that this course might well complicate the problem. Stefansson, the famed Arctic explorer, declared that “few things could be more absurd” than the snow cure for frostbite. What you should do, he said, “is to take your warm hand out of your mitten and press it on the frozen spot for a moment until the whiteness and stiffness is gone.”
Do you believe, as do some, that lightning never strikes twice at the same spot? Do not count on this. This, too, is a dangerous misconception. It could prove fatal to you. Photographic evidence reveals that lightning frequently strikes in the same place, even during the same storm.
There is also the common belief that quicksand itself will suck one under. This is not true. As Scientific American of June 1953 observes: “Contrary to popular notion, quicksand does not suck objects down.” Entertaining this popular notion could cost a person his life.
Actually quicksand supports the body much better than does water. It stands to reason, then, that if one can float in water, he can float in quicksand. It is the frantic struggles of the one caught in quicksand that tend to bury him deeper and deeper.
What, then, should a person caught in quicksand do? He should remain as calm as possible. He should act with purpose. In water he would float and swim. In quicksand he should immediately lie on his back with his arms outstretched. In this position he will not sink. If help does not arrive, he may, with great effort, slowly extricate his feet, one at a time. Then he can roll to firm ground, “floating” on his back frequently to rest.
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