Possibly the most frequent logical fallacy encountered in everyday life is the “post hoc, ergo prompter hoc” error. Also known as the “Pickles Will Kill You!” hypothesis. (See: https://www.pleacher.com/mp/mhumor/mobpickl.html ) But I was very interested to read the long argument that “Pat” linked: The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room. (See Pat’s comment at: https://kinesava.com/2024/01/31/on-the-love-of-nature/comment-page-1/#comment-1 )

 I was reminded of the line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” It’s a good example of why “I don’t know!” – the mantra from my religion – is a good initial response to so much of what we encounter in the information overloaded society we live in today. Much of Pat’s comment went down the long-standing rabbit hole of Vitamin C megadose therapy. Trump recommended hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid, but I think his motivation was far from compassionate. Pat’s source does seem interested in truth.

I don’t know if Vitamin C can cure viral diseases or not, but I do know that the double Nobel laureate Linus Pauling did not achieve the goal of establishing megadose Vitamin C as a standard medical treatment. He did manage to make his crusade for Vitamin C the thing that most people who know anything about him remember today – instead of the rest of his brilliant career. I was also very interested to learn that Pauling suffered from chronic nephritis at age 40 and credited “low-protein salt-free diet and vitamin supplements” with curing himself. Post hoc, ergo prompter hoc. Particle physics is littered with strange people who were otherwise brilliant scientists.

Maybe Pauling was right all along. Maybe not. I Don’t Know! (But I work hard at keeping an open mind.)

The author of Pat’s linked article, Rolf Hefti, wrote, “I wasn’t at all surprised that my BMJ e-letter did not get published. Frankly, I expected it.” My first thought upon reading that was, “If you knew it would be rejected, why did you send it in?” I was hopeful for more understanding when I saw “The Purpose Of Rolf-Hefti.com” under the “About” heading. I was disappointed.

I’ve lived among the Mormons all my life. When I was young, I felt energized and purposeful by fighting the good fight. In Utah, high school students can devote one period a day to religious study. The Mormons have built their own school next to most high schools for this purpose. I didn’t have to be a Mormon to enroll, so I did. (I enrolled in an “early morning” class so I wouldn’t have to sacrifice a regular class.) I received a scholarship offer from BYU as one result. Today, I don’t regret those battles of my youth, but I don’t see anything useful from continuing them either. When teenage Mormon “missionaries” return from their mandated “mission” somewhere in the real world, they seldom have a confirmed “conversion” to their credit and those that they might count typically evaporate in the wind. I doubt that I convinced anyone of anything either.

One of the “Beat Generation” poets of the 1950’s, who later became a minor celebrity and was able to actually publish books, only came to the attention of co-religionists and publishers when friends visited him in an adopted home in North Africa (He was there because it was cheap and he could get drugs easily.) and noticed poems laying around his home. “Why don’t you publish these?” they asked. “I just wrote them for myself.” He explained. “I just like to write.”

Except that I don’t do drugs, my motivation is similar. I’m like a running enthusiast. Why do they do that? They just end up right where they started. Clearly, the motivation of Pauling and Rolf Hefti is different.