Reply #48: If I observe it, I don't assume at all.

[beardown]

It's like if I observe that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists and climate study organizations say there is a 90 percent probability that man is contributing to global warming I don't assume it's sun spots or Rush Limbaugh farts.

On the other hand, when people go through extreme mental contortions to try and deny or diminish the science supporting global warming I can't observe their motives and I have to make assumptions. I might assume that they do so because they are too weak or inflexible to handle the sacrifices that may be needed to fix things so they want to delay the fix as long as possible. I might assume that they are so tied to a ideology that they can't process any information no matter how factually based it is that conflicts with their ideology.

I realize that you have to technically make an assumption if it's only a 90 percent situation, but in the real world if five cancer doctors tell you that there is a 90 percent chance that if you quit smoking it will cure your cancer, you quit smoking and you don't take the advice of the crazy guy with the hacking cough down on the corner who said it's just a plot by the cancer doctors to hurt the tobacco companies' profits.