Common misconceptions universally accepted

Steoob

A common misconception is what people believe the definition of 'ignorance' to be. Its almost totally accepted now to mean the same as 'arrogant'. It REALLY gets on my tits.

Fratton Fred

Limbo

AnonoBoy

Fratton Fred wrote: »

ignorance is bliss;)

That doesn't apply here. If it was a commonly held belief then surely I'd have heard it somewhere at some stage over my life, even if I didn't believe it.

You might as well have said "When in Rome."

luckylucky

m@cc@ wrote: »

Fraid not. You can blame the Christians for ponying that myth.

Yeah I know they ponyed (not quite sure what that means :P) it but the fact that they did a lot of people believed it, no?

Húrin wrote: »

No, the ideas that most people in medieval Europe thought it was flat is a myth perpetrated by the Victorians. The world was demonstrated to be round by both the Indians and the Greeks over 2000 years ago.

Yeah I knew the Greeks (didn't know about the Indians) had proved the world was a sphere but that doesn't mean the ignorant Catholic church of the early medieval period didn't completely ignore that or not understand it.

Other commonly held myths are 'That the Catholic Church has always been a friend to Ireland'.
The Catholic Church actually supported king Billy as they feared the power of the French King at the time.
The Catholic Church's first English pope granted kingship of Ireland to the king of England as Ireland's christians at that time were regarded as too much outside of the jurisdiction of Rome.

That Catholic priests were always not allowed to marry. They were - some Pope changed it way back to stop nepotism in the church, i.e. being a priest used to be considered a great job so priests used their influence to get their sons in the family trade - some Pope decided to put a stop to it by forbidding them to marry.

I often get told I'm a lucky so and so for living in Portugal with all those tanned good looking Portuguese women. The reality is that Portuguese women in general are very plain tbh.

NedTermo

Shaving does not cause hair to grow back thicker or coarser or darker.
This belief is due to the fact that hair that has never been cut has a tapered end, whereas, after cutting, there is no taper.
Thus, it appears thicker, and feels coarser due to the sharper, unworn edges.
Hair can also appear darker after it grows back because hair that has never been cut is often lighter due to sun exposure.

Naos

You eat 8 spiders per year in your sleep.

The amount of times I hear this one is astounding.

Earthhorse

dlofnep wrote: »

Was just reading a racism thread on here, and I noticed the Lauren Hill "I'd rather have black children starve, than white people buy my album" comment. I've read and heard this a million times over, so I looked into it a while back and found out that it was completely inaccurate. The comment wasn't challenged at all, because it's become universally accepted. It just goes to show how little we question certain things when we should.

What other misconceptions are universally accepted?

Similarly, the story regarding Mariah Carey claiming to be envious of starving kids because she'd like to be that skinnny. Complete myth. Most outlandish stories that we hear about celebreties are.

Snopes is a great website for debunking lots of this stuff.

Wazdakka

Jesus.
God.
Heaven.
Tony Danza.

None of them really exist

Fratton Fred

AnonoBoy wrote: »

That doesn't apply here. If it was a commonly held belief then surely I'd have heard it somewhere at some stage over my life, even if I didn't believe it.

You might as well have said "When in Rome."

OK, it is a widely held belief outside of Ireland, where GAP is not, as yet, very common. http://www.blurtit.com/q828466.html

Quazzie

Common misconceptions universally accepted

Phasers is a guy!

Quazzie

Fratton Fred wrote: »

OK, it is a widely held belief outside of Ireland, where GAP is not, as yet, very common. http://www.blurtit.com/q828466.html

I think someone just said you looked Gay and Proud and you assumed it was because you were wearing a GAP top at the time. It might be time to ask yourself some serious questions Fred.

LordSutch

I remember in my yoof being told categorically, that Irish people were the most ethnically pure race in Europe, that red hair & freckles meat that you were indeed of pure Irish/Celtic descent! and that the Beatles were in fact all Irish

Admittedly, all three 'facts' have a little bit of truth in them, just a little ...........

Cool Mo D

Vitamin supplements are good for you.

In reality, they are a poor substitute for healthy eating, as vitamins are better absorbed from food rather than in pill form. And if you are getting all your required vitamins from your diet, taking vitamin pills will have no positive impact on your health, and taking very large doses may actually be harmful.

Also, taking extra vitamin C does nothing for you, excess vitamin C just gets pissed straight out into the jacks.

Also, there is not a shread of evidence that getting plenty of antioxidants in your diet helps your health. Antioxidants play an important role is your cells, but you don't get them there by eating them!

There's a whole load of similar mumbo jumbo about diet out there.

dlofnep

Wazdakka wrote: »

Jesus.
God.
Heaven.
Tony Danza.

None of them really exist

Lay off Danza!

dlofnep

Cool Mo D wrote: »

Vitamin supplements are good for you.

In reality, they are a poor substitute for healthy eating, as vitamins are better absorbed from food rather than in pill form. And if you are getting all your required vitamins from your diet, taking vitamin pills will have no positive impact on your health, and taking very large doses may actually be harmful.

Also, taking extra vitamin C does nothing for you, excess vitamin C just gets pissed straight out into the jacks.

Also, there is not a shread of evidence that getting plenty of antioxidants in your diet helps your health. Antioxidants play an important role is your cells, but you don't get them there by eating them!

There's a whole load of similar mumbo jumbo about diet out there.

Was actually thinking about this very issue on the way into college today.

Magpie!

That the Catholic church ever gave a **** whether the earth was round or not.

The issue for the medieval church was whether the sun revolved around the earth (coz this is where we live and god made us in his image and so everthing revolves around us and blah blah blah) or whether the earth revolves around the sun.

It's the latter in case you were wondering.

AnonoBoy

Fratton Fred wrote: »

OK, it is a widely held belief outside of Ireland, where GAP is not, as yet, very common. http://www.blurtit.com/q828466.html

I lived in the US for a year. Never heard it there either.

Futurism

Luke, I am your father.

Euro_Kraut

NedTermo wrote: »

Shaving does not cause hair to grow back thicker or coarser or darker.
This belief is due to the fact that hair that has never been cut has a tapered end, whereas, after cutting, there is no taper.
Thus, it appears thicker, and feels coarser due to the sharper, unworn edges.
Hair can also appear darker after it grows back because hair that has never been cut is often lighter due to sun exposure.

Hold on. That proves that cutting or shaving hair makes it darker.

asdasd

Yeah I knew the Greeks (didn't know about the Indians) had proved the world was a sphere but that doesn't mean the ignorant Catholic church of the early medieval period didn't completely ignore that or not understand it.

The Myth is that the Catholic church progogated the idea that the Earth was flat. Thats a protestant myth which comes from England after the reformation, and is "commonly" believed to this day. The Catholic clergy knew their Romans, and Greeks for the obvious reason - they could read Latin ( and the Greeks had been translated). Later protestants would have less of an understanding of the Latin world, and more of the vernacular.

Ptolemy. Look it up.

aidan24326

me_right_one wrote: »

Apparantely the Neil Armstrong "One small step..." speech is wrong!?! He's supposed to have said "thats one small step for A man.....", but people just say "for man"

And was written by his wife I believe
.

Cool Mo D wrote: »

Vitamin supplements are good for you.

In reality, they are a poor substitute for healthy eating, as vitamins are better absorbed from food rather than in pill form. And if you are getting all your required vitamins from your diet, taking vitamin pills will have no positive impact on your health, and taking very large doses may actually be harmful.

Also, taking extra vitamin C does nothing for you, excess vitamin C just gets pissed straight out into the jacks.

Also, there is not a shread of evidence that getting plenty of antioxidants in your diet helps your health. Antioxidants play an important role is your cells, but you don't get them there by eating them!

There's a whole load of similar mumbo jumbo about diet out there.

Very true, there's an almighty amount of nonsense about diet and nutrition, and when a spoofer like Gillian McKeith gets her own tv show you know there's a problem.

Wazdakka

dlofnep wrote: »

Lay off Danza!

NEVER! :mad:

He knows what he did...

WeeBushy

That women pee out of their ass.

Well maybe not common, but two of my friends believed this when they were 15, they still get slagged about it.

Fratton Fred

Quazzie wrote: »

I think someone just said you looked Gay and Proud and you assumed it was because you were wearing a GAP top at the time. It might be time to ask yourself some serious questions Fred.

well it was a tight pink tee shirt.........

AnonoBoy wrote: »

I lived in the US for a year. Never heard it there either.

what can I say, you obviously don't read the right newspapers

Duck's quacks DO echo...have you heard that one?:D

asdasd

One small step..." speech is wrong!?! He's supposed to have said "thats one small step for A man.....", but people just say "for man"

Maybe, but it doesnt matter to the logic of the sentence, does it. Its a small step for him, and a giant step ( or was it leap?) for ManKind. He said that as he stepped off the last rung onto the moon.

walshb

m@cc@ wrote: »

Well, I'm sure someone did/does but not as many as you would think.

Isn't this the whole point of the thread, if everyone believed something, then it's
not really a misconception;)

Some that spring to mind are:

Shaving does not cause hair to grow back thicker or coarser or darker.

Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating.

deco05ie

Cool Mo D wrote: »

Vitamin supplements are good for you.

In reality, they are a poor substitute for healthy eating, as vitamins are better absorbed from food rather than in pill form. And if you are getting all your required vitamins from your diet, taking vitamin pills will have no positive impact on your health, and taking very large doses may actually be harmful.

they are called vitamin supplements instead of vitamin substitutes for a reason. I agree with you though for most people vitamin supplements are not useful but for athletes and people with deficiencies of certain vitamins, supplements are very handy.

Gloom

"Elementary my dear, Watson."

I heard that this was never said in the books, only the movie but people associate it with the book. I think..:o

AnonoBoy

Fratton Fred wrote: »

what can I say, you obviously don't read the right newspapers

The Stormfront Gazette or the It's Against God World News perhaps?

AnonoBoy

walshb wrote: »

Isn't this the whole point of the thread, if everyone believed something, then it's
not really a misconception;)

If it was wrong it still would be.