"When the evidence is tentative, we should not be embarrassed to call on common sense for guidance." - science writer John Horgan

All humans, including scientists, are inclined to jump to conclusions, even though we know digging for facts is more productive "exercise". Unintimidated thinking would suggest that a number of widespread theories that have become accepted as fact may have originated by the FIRST method. For example:

Micro-organisms have been demonstrated to exist, to NEARLY always be present in certain diseased conditions and even to be somehow involved in the "spreading" of the "disease". So it's generally ASSUMED they CAUSE the "disease". SOUNDS logical enough - on the surface. But when we notice vultures, maggots or other scavengers nearly always present at dead carcasses do we assume they CAUSED the dead carcass? And will eliminating the scavengers "cure" or prevent the condition? My father used to ask: "Now, the first person who had this disease - who did they catch it from?"

The human body is often compared to a machine - and probably IS the supreme mechanical-and-more marvel on the planet. But it's also a "structure" (like a bridge or a building). Like the body, both machines and structures require maintenance; but, unlike the body nothing man-made repairs and maintains itself. That, to me, is one of the body's greatest marvels. And interestingly, it's internal maintenance functions very closely resemble those of a building - say a very large industrial office complex, for instance. While some maintenance goes on around the clock, such as patrolling lobbies and corridors for trash and spills as a matter of safety as well as appearance, the serious maintenance starts after the place closes for the day. Not just trash pickup, cleaning, polishing and restoration of vulnerable materials like floor finish. If it's a very large (and very old) complex, there will nearly always be some rooms in the process of being completely "gutted" and restored, rebuilt or remodeled.

While this latter process greatly extends the usefulness and even the structural soundness of the building, it produces a great deal of debris in addition to the trash the janitorial crew carries out every night from the day's normal course of doing business. Much like the wearing out and replacing of the body's cells in addition to the waste from normal byproducts of metabolism. (Used loosely here to refer to the entire course of digesting, assimilating and producing energy from the food we eat. In reality, of course, some of our food is also used to "build" new cells.)

Now, what do you think would become of all this building maintenance in the event of a general sanitation strike? Probably business as usual for a few days until the normal pick-up area outside the back door gets full. Then trash starts to accumulate INSIDE the back door, then along the back corridor, finally in ALL the corridors (the "arteries" of all the building's activity); until everyone is stepping over and around it. Business slows down during the day. (Ever get that sluggish feeling?) Maintenance slows down at night. (You notice when wounds heal slowly, but internal breakdown may remain invisible for years.) After a while it becomes almost impossible to get ANYTHING done.

If the day crew and the maintenance crews are under enough deadline pressure to "produce", and repeated attempts to resolve the waste problem are unsuccessful long enough, somebody will eventually give up in total frustration and start throwing it out the windows. (Ever have boils, pimples, abscesses or a messy discharge from sinuses or bronchial tubes? The body HAS to get rid of its debris SOME WAY in order to function and stay alive.)

My father, a non-medical health care professional for many years, used to insist that AT LEAST 90-95% of all our ills in the "Western World" come about PRIMARILY from two sources. Failure to put INTO our bodies the proper building materials; and the body's failure to properly ELIMINATE it's waste materials. Not necessarily in that order of priorities.

Here's another maintenance aspect to consider: If the building's trash and other debris stays piled up in the corridors and outside holding areas long enough, it's almost certain to become infested with vermin, from roaches to rats to who knows what else. Just as similar accumulations in the human body will almost always contain "undesirable" micro-organisms. Did the VERMIN in the building CAUSE the filthy CONDITION to develop, or was it the other way around? Is it likely this "cause and effect" relationship will suddenly reverse when we enter the microscopic "world"?

Sure! Life is a "miracle". But nothing "mystical" goes on inside the living organism. The same laws of physics (and logic) apply there as in the "outside world". There's no biological "black magic".

When you examine all the theories, observations and conclusions IN RELATION TO EACH OTHER, you see how little is really known for sure. In contrast to the changeable, often contradictory, sometimes near whimsical theories of humans, you'll find a very special, dependable kind of "wisdom" in the natural world. (Some credit "Mother Nature" - whatever became of "Father Nature"?) Probably why the few doctors (both Medical and Non- Medical) I ever knew who really "made sense" all grew up on the farm. They understood how life works in the real world, not just in the laboratory (and were frequently labeled "quacks" by "technological medicine"). Have you ever noticed that while "natural science" marvels at the "order" and "wisdom" in nature, technology often appears to view it as a bumbling ignoramus, an accident, even an enemy that needs conquering, controlling, redesigning?

(What?!! Do they not like themselves very much and, consequently think they must strive to change the course of "evolution" since it apparantly didn't do a very good job? Or is it the other way around, and they egotistically think they're so near perfect they must "rein it in" while they're ahead? Who knows?)