Urban Myths

[NeoPhile]

There are a lot of urban myths out there. (You know, things that a lot of people think are true, or that you may have learned in school, but are simply not true.)
I'll start off:
It's an urban myth that people of Christopher Columbus's time thought the Earth was flat. Philosophers and others, since the time of Ancient Greece, have known that the Earth is round. The people of Columbus's time didn't think he would fall off the edge of the Earth; they only thought he would never reach Asia (and technically, they were right. Columbus was looking for a back way to Asia. This myth arose from Washington Irving's biography about Columbus. If you misinterpret one part of it, you think someone was saying the Earth was flat. All the philosophers and scientists of Columbus's time knew the Earth was round.)
So, let's keep this thread going! What other false information is out there?

 

[Lady Penelope]

Hmmm...that governments are in place to assist the people and not to just make money for a select few individuals...no wait, that's likely to be considered a conspiracy theory as opposed to urban myth

...when it's actually neither.

 

[Aspie_rin]

That being cold makes you sick. Cold can weaken your immunitary system, staying inside too much can too, and when people are cold they thend to get closer from one another to get warmer, and being so close allows the propagation of illnesses. A cold is caused by a virus, not by cold temperatures.

 

[Aspie_rin]

And that GMOs are dangerous. The increased use of herbicides and pesticides allowed by making crops more resistant to them is bad, and that Mosanto has a monopoly on them is something to be worried about, but artificial doesn't mean bad and natural doesn't mean good. The cancer study has been done to a type of rat genetically engineered to be prone to having cancer, so of course they got cancer.

 

[Aspie_rin]

And that animal testing is a necessary evil. There are other ways to test things that are often more effective, and every species can react to products differently so we can't predict what a product will do to a human by looking at what it does to a rat. For example chocolate is poisonous to dogs but fine to humans, and aspirin kills guinea pigs and causes miscariages in rats. Also most of the testing is not even necessary, often it's things like forcing them to drink cleaning products even thoug they're not meant to be drank.

And that animal products are necessary for health. The Amercican Dietetic Association claims that a well planned vegan diet is adequate for everyone no matter the age or health conditions. Also there's many healthy vegans, like that heart surgeon who is over 90 years old but is still able to do his chores, live independantly and is able to memorize things as easily as when he was 20.