What is something (besides religion) commonly believed to be true that is actually not?
My favorite example of this is the "plants-good, meat-bad" nonsense so prevalent in the mainstream media. Many of the so-called examples you see supporting this position are based on observational epidemiology, and a good dose of religious woo-woo specifically from the Seventh Day Adventists.The link will take you to an article with some discussion of the role of the self-proclaimed SDA prophetess Ellen G. White. If you are not familiar with her role in the position of the SDA's on nutrition, and the role the church plays to this day, you should learn about it. (Note you can find better articles than this one, but it gets the point across. Do your own investigation)
Almost everything said about "The Bermuda Triangle".
It’s commonly believed that in the time of Columbus everyone thought the Earth was flat. Everyone knew it was round and had even worked out how big some two thousand years by the time Columbus came along. He did the math himself and came up with a smaller diameter that would have placed India about a thousand miles closer to Spain then Maine. Columbus was a typical alcoholic, didn’t know where he was going, once there didn’t know where he was, when he came back he didn’t know where he’d been. Columbus was crappy at math and navigation.
He had to turn to religious fanatics for money to finance the voyage for two reasons, first they always have the money and second they aren’t great intelligences. The same year Isabella financed Columbus she also started the first Spanish Inquisition, no one ever suspects the Spanish Inquisition.
I am not in agreement with the premise "plants good, meat bad", because the dichotomy is not that simple, the link content is just ridiculous, SDAs nor any other religion (kosher, halal, religious dietary restrictions) has ever had major impact on science based recommendations of diet, other than fast foods selling fish sandwiches during easter. Science has always said eat anything in moderation. This said, there are many other factors we do not really control, too many to discuss even briefly here but that have to do with climate change, sustainability, allergens, ecology, population boom, and many others that necessarily currently or soon will affect the way we eat.
Too mant people believe in astrology. Tarot cards. And other woo nonsense.
But speaking of food... the movie cowspiracy was a bunch of nonsense. As far as I remebr (and I'm making up nummbers here to illustrate their "logic" ) it went something like this. There's a million cows. Each cow emits 10 pounds of waste a day. Therefore 10 million pounds of cow waste gets washed into rivers and the ocean each day... Nonsense.
Wurd,
You get it.
No. The farms gather it up & scatter it on their fields in the spring....see those large "hills" with concrete sides & a tarp over the top held down by old tires? That's the manure, composting away....damned valuable stuff!