Hypothesis as Proof

Many of us make the major mistake of confusing a hypothesis with a conclusion that doesn't need to be verified. For example, it is often stated that abstinence-only sex "education" for teens is valid because if teens don't have sex there can be no pregnancies, abortions or problems with STDs. As statistics show, the areas that don't provide full and accurate sexual education to teens are the ones with the highest levels of teen pregnancies and abortions. The unrecognized cause of the discrepancy is the idea behind the abstinence-only movement is a hypothesis, not a verified conclusion.

The way it should be approached is to state the idea as a hypothesis: "If we expose teens to abstinence-only ideas, there will be fewer teen pregnancies, abortions and issues with STDs." That is a statement that can be tested and verified. Instead, proponents state this as an already-proved claim which allows them to ignore the actual results.

Here are additional examples:

People will kill at the same rate with or without guns
Captialism works because of the invisible hand
It's better for everyone to be selfish
Marijuana use leads to abusing other drugs
Welfare leads to people not wanting to work
Taxing the rich leads to calamity and hurts poor people
Taxing the poor makes them work harder

Vitamin supplements are just as good as vitamins in food
Spare the rod, spoil the child