Merlin said:
Something weird about this. I don't remember getting surveyed about smoking, and I'm sure my neighbors didn't either. My kin folk sure wasn't. Where did they get all these statistics? Me make up statistics? I haven't even given any statistics. I've given an observation.
You made an observation based on a sample size which is far smaller than the sample sizes used to study the effects of smoking. Larger sample size yields smaller statistical errors. This much should be obvious.
I'm just not gullible enough to believe any of this stuff about smoking is as bad as some people claim.
Look at the numbers, it doesn't matter what people claim. Smoking is correlated with mortality rates. If you don't understand the term "correlation" go and read up on some basic statistics.
Look around you. You probably know a lot of my kin people that smoke because most of them live in or around you and your beautiful city and they and their friends believe the same way, that smoking is no worse or no better than a gazillion other products in this world.
Name one gazillion other products which have such a high correlation with mortality rates and increased rates of lung cancer.
Besides, I've lived fairly close to seven decades and that is enough for anyone. By the way, I have smoked since I was four years old and don't have any kind of cancer.
Wow - a sample size of one. What a large sample.
As I stated before, there isn't one shred of evidence that smoking "CAUSES" any kind of sickness.
Except for the fact that the frequency of certain kinds of sicknesses are far greater in the smoking population than the non-smoking population. But I don't know what I'm bothering to inform you of this, that would involve "numbers" and you don't believe in "numbers".
About 85% of those who come down with lung cancer are smokers. About 25% of the population are smokers. If smoking didn't cause lung cancer, only about 25% of those who come down with lung cancer would be smokers. Is this too complicated for you to understand?
You do understand that random effects get smaller the more samples you take, don't you? If you flip a coin 100 times, there is a 90% chance you will get between 40 and 60 heads - a 10% error. If you flip a coin 10,000 times, there is a 90% you will get between 4900 and 5100 heads, a 1% error. The statistical error in sample goes down with the square root of the sample size. If you have a sample which is 4 times larger, your error will be twice as small.
Yourself and your family are not a random cross section of the population. You are basing your conclusions on the assumption that everyone else's genetics with regard to cancer are the same as your family's, and rejecting mounds and mounds of scientific evidence based on this flimsy, faulty, and foolish assumption of yours.
Smoking greatly increases your chances of getting lung cancer. Its a scientific truth, which you are free to be ignorant of. But don't pretend you are basing your conclusions on anything scientific, you are basing them on what you wish the truth was.
YOUR LOGIC:
Hey, I've driven drunk on several occasions in my life, and never caused an accident. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that drunk driving does not cause accidents, nevermind all these "numbers" and "statistics" they have on it, you'd have to be gullible to believe those. I'm me and everyone else's experience and genetics are exactly the same as mine. I drive drunk - I don't cause accidents - therefore, drunk driving does not cause accidents. Makes sense, doesn't it?