My sunflower just started blooming.  It grew from some seeds that were thrown in a flower pot two years ago.  The sunflower is probably the highest in Maryland because it is on top of a 20-story building.

One of the trick questions when I was in elementary school was:  “Where is the highest skyscraper in the world?”  At the time, the Sears tower had not been built, so the Empire State Building was the logical answer.  WRONG!  The highest skyscraper is in Mexico City.  Since Mexico City is 2250 meters or 7400 feet above sea level (about one and-a-half miles up in the sky), the highest skyscrapers have to be there.  If the question had been “Where is the tallest skyscraper in the world?” the answer might have been different.

Exercise your mind with some puzzles

Every few weeks, new research seems to contradict something that we thought was already well established in medical science. Questions keep being raised about carbohydrates, probiotics, hormone replacement therapy, vitamin supplementation, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and a variety of medical interventions that we assumed were safe and would help to lengthen our life. In addition to ambiguous research results, we frequently hear about the benefits of alternative medicines, herbs, and natural products whose claims have not been scientifically examined but which are absolutely guaranteed to clean your arteries, improve prostate health, or help you burn belly fat. What can you believe?

The more knowledge that we have, the better decisions that we are able to make in every aspect of our life. We are much better off today by knowing that malaria is a disease caused by protozoa transmitted by mosquito bites rather than just by “bad air”. When we have information based on verifiable truth, we are able to make decisions that can help us to solve a problem. The same is not possible when our beliefs are based on wrong or false information. Modern life is so confusing that we still are not really sure what is the source of the increased rates of autism, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, and many other maladies of our time.

In the end, we are responsible for our own well-being. The best way to take care of ourselves is to eat, drink, and exercise like the people who have lived in good health to a ripe old age. We have to avoid unproven fads. The most important thing that we can learn is to know how to tell the difference between what is true and what is false. This is called Critical Thinking and it is part of the Scientific Method.

The formulation of valid logical arguments is one of the pillars of the Scientific Method.  An argument consists of one or more premises and one conclusion.  A premise is a statement that is offered in support of the conclusion. Premises and conclusions are statements that may be true or false. A valid logical argument presents true premises that logically lead to a true conclusion.  Arguments may be either deductive or inductive.  The premises in deductive arguments provide complete support for the conclusion, whereas for inductive arguments they provide some degree of support, but not complete support.  Fallacies are arguments that are defective because the premises do not provide the proper support for the conclusion.  These are the most common fallacies:

An Ad Hominem fallacy is an argument which is used to discredit what a person said by attacking the person rather than by disproving the statement.  An Ad Hominem fallacy is invalid logic because the character, circumstances, or actions of a person are not relevant to the truth or falsity of the claim being made.   For example, in the argument “President Bush is a bad president because he goofed off in college”, the conclusion that President Bush is a bad president may be true, but the statement that he goofed off in college which may also be true does not provide enough support for the conclusion.

An Appeal to Authority is an argument where the premise references an authority to support the argument.  Appeals to authority may be wrong when the authority is not a reliable reference for a particular subject, for example:  “President Bush said that our mission in Iraq was accomplished therefore it must be true”.

Appeal to Ridicule is a fallacy in which ridicule or mockery is used in the premise as a justification for the conclusion.  For example, “Copernicus said that the Earth goes around the sun.  He is crazy!”  Ridiculing Copernicus does not disprove that the Earth goes around the sun.