22 January 2021

Yeah - but, is it beyond reasonable doubt?

I had fun writing an article 'Beyond reasonable doubt' some years ago. That article is not in peer reviewed scientific literature, but was a 'popular article' in 'grey literature'. I had fun applying my mind to relating my experience in court with a friend who was on trial for what was apparently a fraudulent claim, to georeferencing...

I was thinking a lot this morning about my concerns about many of the 'conspiracy theories' in that, in my mind at least, they are not beyond reasonable doubt. 

When I do some fact checking I find all sorts of reasons to doubt many of the claims, and if many claims are not beyond reasonable doubt, then I wonder if each claim is beyond reasonable doubt?

I have been part of publishing many peer reviewed research papers and so I am not always confident with the outright derision of peer reviewed literature about vaccines or pesticides being biased - it might be true in many instances, but maybe not as many as some critics propose. 

I have been involved in computer modelling and know that there are usually many more variables involved than one can practically combine in a model, or for which values are known, and so conclusions are not absolutely conclusive, but simply suggestive. 

I have thought a lot about genetics and how many things might be far more prevalent in 2021 because we provide things like spectacles, wheelchairs, hearing aids and other things, and people live longer due to immunizations, and so there is more opportunity for genes causing disorders such as myopia, mobility challenges, and hearing challenges to be passed on because they are not 'selected against' or people reach an age when they can breed and they are more accepted by potential mates so that their genes have greater probability of being passed on than before these aids and immunizations. So - I do not deny the conclusions, but I do also recognise that there might be more variables involved than have been factored in the model and so maybe the conclusions are not beyond reasonable doubt. 

How many times have people sent me a sensational thing that they received on social media (especially when it says to 'pass it on to all of your contacts'!) and I send back a link to snopes.com or some other myth-busting post about that sensational thing that sheds doubt on it. I could send links to myth busting sites that debunk so many claims (I have not investigated all of the claims because that would simply take far more time than I deem appropriate), but I am not sure that the person who sent that item would read them with an open mind anyway. That person can do the same fact checking that I can do, perhaps better than I can do - I do not have tools available to me that are not available to them.

So - please accept that I look at what some of my friends send to me through my own filters and I have not been confident that the things with which they might be so passionately engaged are not beyond reasonable doubt. My wife Sal also looks at them through the filter of her personal experience seeing children that have died because they were not immunized. 

Let me share a scenario that came to my mind in the early hours this morning... Genes that lead to autism might be able to manifest themselves in 2021 when the condition is recognised and diagnosed simply because more people carrying those genes reach reproductive age because they were immunized, and they are not shunned by a potential mate who might also be a carrier of the genes because of things like spectacles, hearing aid, or some other life support aid, and so the genes are passed on to the next generation with more frequency than in previous years. So, double recessive genes manifest themselves more than they might have done, and they are discoverable, detectable, identifiable and describable, and so the frequency is more evident as well as more probable. If a computer model excludes certain variables, the conclusion can be drawn that there is a strong positive correlation between heavy metals in vaccines and the condition, whereas this might not be a causative, but simply a compounding factor. Then - people who do not consider the wider aspects of the scenario broadcast the conclusion of cause rather than coincidence and look for evidence to bolster their claims, and build up a really strong case that is accepted by hundreds of people who do not check the facts themselves, leading to stronger 'evidence' in favour of a misplaced conclusion. Then, the claim circulates widely on social media and fear is engendered where the whole claim really is not beyond reasonable doubt.

I hope that you will have a wonderful day and not be driven to fear by every one of those sensational scare stories that come to you. Please seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and I promise you that all those things that are of greatest value in this life and in eternity will be added unto you. I know that Heavenly Father has power to heal us should we have autism or whatever incidental problems might come because you or I might be one of the two or three out of a hundred people that is affected by immunizations or pesticides. If we are repentant and faithful, we can follow the prophet and put our trust in God's immeasurable divine power rather than putting our trust entirely in the arm of flesh. 

I hope that you are not offended by my being blunt in this. I hope that we can be one in Christ and agree to disagree... If you watched my YouTube  video about being one, then you will recall how passionate I am about the teachings of Jesus Christ in John17, John 15, Matthew 5-7, 3 Nephi 11, and so on 🙂

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