The Trouble with Anecdotal Evidence...

This may seem obvious, and I'm certainly getting to the point in my life where a lot of things generally bother me, but I do need to say for the record...

The trouble with anecdotal evidence is that we are mired in it as a society and as individuals and most of us don't care.

Anecdotal evidence includes any personal story or evidence which cannot be independently verified or tested.  It is an example of bad or psuedo-science, but that's another matter entirely.

My goal in this post is not to contest belief systems such as religion or mythology.  These are important social institutions that have their own merits.  Rather, my goal is to challenge the notion (yours, mine, everyone's) that a single success story or milestone reflects anything beyond the simple fact that one thing might have happened and that it might happen again to one degree or another.  Nothing more.

Please, let's get away from placing our beliefs about the world based upon simple anecdotes.  If you want to believe something, believe in science or magic or religion or aliens.  The lowest threshold for believing something about anything should be an anecdote.

Related story:  Man eats 25,000 Big Macs and has good health/low cholesterol   - Also, here's an analysis that provides more information about this story: http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2010/03/don-gorske-big-mac-prediction.html (I won't argue or agree with either article as there's not enough to go on)

More about anecdotal evidence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence