Post hoc, ergo propter hoc

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An example is the following statement:
 
An example is the following statement:
 
In Romania, abortion was illegal under two decades of rule by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and the country enjoyed one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the entire world during that time, far lower than comparable Western countries."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/Abortion</ref>  Just because the breast cancer rate went down does not mean that the illegality of abortions caused it.  
 
In Romania, abortion was illegal under two decades of rule by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and the country enjoyed one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the entire world during that time, far lower than comparable Western countries."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/Abortion</ref>  Just because the breast cancer rate went down does not mean that the illegality of abortions caused it.  
 
Another [[Flying Spaghetti Monster|example]] is the observation that, in the past 200 years, the average global temperature has been growing at the same rate the number of pirates has been falling.
 
  
 
===References===
 
===References===

Revision as of 04:58, 5 November 2007

"Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" is a Latin phrase for "after this, so because of this." The term refers to a rhetorical fallacy that because two events occurred in succession, the former event caused the latter event.[1][2]

An example is the following statement: In Romania, abortion was illegal under two decades of rule by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and the country enjoyed one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the entire world during that time, far lower than comparable Western countries."[3] Just because the breast cancer rate went down does not mean that the illegality of abortions caused it.

References

  1. Glenn, Cheryl; Loretta Gray. Hodges' Harbrace Handbook. 16th ed. Thomson: Boston, 2007: p. 480.
  2. http://rucus.ru.ac.za/~urban/docs/baloney.html
  3. http://www.conservapedia.com/Abortion
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