Climate science is confusing. One side tries to convince me that global temperatures are going up since the Industrial Revolution. The other side tells me that correlation doesn't equal causation. In fact, the climate works in really long term cycles that last hundreds of years. We're on an upswing and in 50-200 years temperature trends will get cooler again.
Then the Global Warming people tell me that there's a consensus of experts saying climate change exists. Then the other side says the experts aren't asked the right question. Of course the earth is getting warmer, the question is why.
Wait, I think there's a way of relieving this confusion. Instead of going over the confusing evidence of global warming, lets work through the logic of global warming.
1. CO2 is a Greenhouse gas, so it traps heat in the atmosphere
2. Humans have caused a steep rise in CO2 gas
3. So humans have caused more heat to get trapped in the atmosphere
Okay, that was easy. Lets do another one.
Vaccine science is confusing. One side tells me about all the awful diseases that disappeared right after vaccines were produced. But weren't they introduced at the same time as basic sanitization? Maybe clean water had more to do with it than vaccines.
Wait, I think there's a way of reliving this confusion again. Instead of going over the evidence of vaccines, lets work through the logic.
1. Researchers give some people the vaccine, and other people a placebo
2. They measure the antibodies before and after, and find that the people with the vaccine have more antibodies.
3. So it's statistically unlikely that the vaccine does not create more antibodies that fight disease.
Okay, that was easy. Another?
Race differences are confusing. Some people tell me that races tend to have different IQs, and differ in personality traits. But races have different experiences too. After centuries of racism, and slavery, and discrimination, how can we expect things to average out? Even today races aren't treated exactly the same.
Wait, I think there's yet another way of relieving this confusion. Instead of going over the evidence of race outcomes, lets work through the logic.
1. Races differ genetically (genetic correlations, not a race gene)
2. Cognitive differences have genetic underpinnings
3. So it's very likely that races have cognitive differences
Graphs and statistics are confusing. That's why we should stop using them to persuade the public of scientific truisms. People are too good at finding alternative explanations for every piece of evidence, no matter how implausible. Straightforward logic is much more convincing.
