Myths can be tricky to argue.
Reddit user, u/BraveLittleToaster77, wanted to shatter the veil when they asked:
What popular myths do you wanna destroy with truth right now?
Let's get this out of the way: Most spiders are beneficial to the environment. Don't squash them
Sorry, You Web-Heads
"You do not swallow spiders in your sleep."
"This is one of the stupidest I think I've heard."
"What was it? That the average person swallows a dozen spiders in their lifetime while asleep or something?"
A Load Of The Mind For Some Out There
"The idea that penis size varies according to race is not supported by scientific evidence."
"According to Aaron Spitz, a urologist, many websites and studies promoting variation of penis size between races use unscientific methods of collecting information and often ignore contradictory evidence."
Not Saving As Much As You Want
"Having your car coast in neutral does not save gas. In fact, it uses more gas than if you just let off the accelerator and let it coast in gear."
"To color this in a bit, the fuel injectors are off when you're coasting. In neutral, the engine speed drops to idle, and the fuel injectors are at work keeping the engine running."
Science is a tricky subject. In fact, it's so tricky that people have to study it for years and years to even be considered semi-respectable in their field.
So, maybe listen to science?
...*pauses to think about bees*
"Science has never said bees can't fly according to the laws of physics. There was a time not too long ago when we didn't know exactly how any insects flew, but we never thought it was somehow against the laws of physics or aerodynamics, we just didn't know the exact equations. But we do know the exact equations now and know exactly how insects fly. (And there was never anything special about bees in particular, it was all insects' flight that we didn't fully understand until recently.)"
Not. Quite. The. Same.
"I don't know if it counts but that famous picture of evolution that goes from a chimp gradually into a human."
"Any biologist could tell you that we don't come from chimps. We share a common ancestor and that's it. The worse part is how famous the picture is."
"The best way to explain it is Dogs, Cats, Wolves, Lynx and Hyenas."
"They are very close on The Family Tree of Evolution, they can't interbreed with their cousins but are similar enough to warrant confusion. Hyenas are the best way to show the links between Canine and Feline as they are a separate genus Hyenaine, that split around the time Felines and Canines split long before humans."
This One's For All The Dummies Out There
"Vaccines do not cause autism. Only one person ever found any connection, and later admitted to having made it all up."
"Vaccines are also given to children around the same time autism starts being visible, so due to that coincidence people think it's the cause"
"Just to add to this, the guys name is Andrew Wakefield and he is a total piece of sh-t. Here is a long video which describes all the things he did to make himself rich at the expense of the suffering of others."
"It's worse than that. He deliberately made it up so he and a lawyer could make a bunch of money with the patent for their own vaccine, he had to fudge the small data he DID have, and put children through invasive and dangerous tests looking for a disease that HE made up claiming it lead to autism."
"He's a f-cking monster. The blood of children is all over his hands for nothing more than greed."
Myths catch on because they're easy to believe in, especially when it's something that aligns with our values. This is why it can be so difficult when you learn something that breaks the glass shield you were defending yourself with.
Turns Out To Be Successful, You Actually Have To Work
"Einstein never failed math. In fact, he could do advanced calculus at an early age."
"There goes my motivation."
"I think a lot of the myth behind it comes from two things: a report card cited and his unsuccessful admission to ETH once."
"On the first, I think the misunderstanding comes from the fact that the canton where he went to school reversed their scoring system while he was a student. So the report card people often cite shows him getting a 6. At the time he got that report, a 6 was the highest score. But at another point in time in Aargau, it was the reverse, where 6 would've been the lowest score and 1 was the highest."
"That being said on the latter, there were subjects he didn't do well in, likely because he didn't care much for them (stuff like French, etc)."
"But in that, there is some reason for motivation still, in that one type of genius isn't necessarily all types of genius. We all have our own interests and skills and can excel in them without needing to benchmark ourselves against people with interests and skills in other areas."
We're Lucky To Be Here
"There is no indication in the historical record of alien interference at any stage in human history. None. The progression of technological development in pre-industrial history shows no sudden great leaps forward where a whole bunch of things were discovered at once. New technologies show up sporadically, and in forms that clearly suggest that they have been figured out from scratch, not handed down from on high."
"The earliest smelters didn't even have a receptacle to catch molten copper in. The earliest example of pyramids have visible design failures you can see with your own eyes today. Even the potter's wheel had clumsy precursors. These are clearly not someone being taught a completed technology wholemeal."
"In short, ironically, our ancestors were literally too dumb to have been helped."
Go Get A Cute Buddy This Halloween
"We need to get rid of the idea that animal shelters shouldn't adopt out black cats around halloween to protect them"
"The idea that rescues should hold onto them until after halloween because someone might torture them kills WAY more cats than it saves."
"What ISN'T widespread is people getting black cats to torture them at Halloween. This idea is a remnant of the satanic panic. Theres no evidence that they're in any more danger in October than any other time."
"What is widespread is cats dying in kill shelters because no-kills aren't adopting out the cats they have, and therefore arent pulling from animal control facilities."
"Please stop letting urban legends harm animals."
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