Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site grkermit.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!chris From: chris@grkermit.UUCP (Chris Hibbert) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Birth control and education Message-ID: <524@grkermit.UUCP> Date: Wed, 27-Jul-83 13:08:50 EDT Article-I.D.: grkermit.524 Posted: Wed Jul 27 13:08:50 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 27-Jul-83 23:19:14 EDT References: ihlpf.174, <5590@unc.UUCP> <1171@umcp-cs.UUCP> Organization: GenRad Inc., Concord, MA Lines: 21 In attacking unc!tim's statement supporting sex education, Liz Allen (umcp-cs!liz) said: Notice also that the incidence of teenage pregnancies has greatly increased, not decreased in recent years as there has been more emphasis on sex education. I'm fairly certain she wouldn't be happy with the following paraphrase of her statement with all the logical force of the original: Notice also that there has been more emphasis on sex education in recent years as the incidence of teenage pregnancies has greatly increased. My point is that she is using one of the fallacies of logical argument. (Of course I've forgotten the technical term for it.) In order for the argument to hold water, she must show that causality holds in some desired direction, and that the two changes pointed to didn't merely take place over the same span of time. I personally don't believe that the two are unrelated, but I wouldn't want to try to prove that either of the two trends caused the other.