The Reality Check Episode 21

Angels+Celebrities+Spider Eating Myth

An Angel? Or just an Illusion?

Part 1: 

14 year old Chelsea Banton recovered from pneumonia by the touch of an angel during the Christmas holidays of 2008. The surveillance cameras even had an image of a bright white angel shaped light in the hallway. The skeptics on the Reality Check said that this kind of situation might be like the face on mars or a cloud shape like a dog. We tend to see things that influence us the most, and from the image in the security camera, the most familiar thing that came to our minds was an angel. The doctor who was treating Chelsea at the time even said that she saw that image just outside the door. Now, we know that it can't be some reflection illusion like it might appear on a window. Another thing is why do people only question the angel? Some people questioned the doctors to explain what they think it happened. They explain that was the proof of God, if you don't accept that, then you are just in denial. But, when we say it's a Christmas Miracle, we don't actually mean it happened on Christmas day, it's just broadcasted on that day. That event actually happened on Nov. 15th. Why did God only save this girl? There are plenty of other people dying everywhere in the world. There are many arguments on both sides, and we can't get to a consensus. One more thing is that the doctor said that she saw the angel at the door, but she actually saw the angel in the monitor. She only said at the door because she saw the image from the camera. 

So in conclusion, many people can be very biased about what they believe in, so always be skeptical.

Part 2: 

A lot of the times, most people don't learn any science at all in their daily life, and when they do, they learn it from celebrities. Many people look up to them of course, but many many things celebrities say can be wrong and misleading. There are many other people of course who try to correct them in order not to mislead many people. 

We will now talk about the three things that are mislead the most: MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination), Tom Cruise and psychiatry, and climate change. 

There are many celebrities who argue about MMR vaccines, and they cause autism. Just because many people believe that it's true, doesn't make it true. It is false, they have no relation, whatsoever.

Tom Cruise said psychiatry doesn't work, and it's a crime against humanity. This again is just simply false. Problems like Schizophrenia are best treated with psychiatry, other things just don't work as well. It might be harmful for some people, but you can not say that it's a crime against humanity. 

Now to climate change. There is human cause climate change, of course. Many politicians find celebrities to say that all the stuff we are doing is changing the world dramatically, and because many people look up to celebrities, they believe it as well. But the climate change that we have seen in so many charts have been like that since the beginning of the Earth, the whole thing is just a pattern.

Science Myth of the Week: Spider Eating Myth
This is just not true, no one swallows spiders when they sleep with their mouth open. Spiders generally avoid large mammals and especially their breath.