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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Some easy ones: lung cancer and heart disease caused by smoking, 

But not all of those cancers are caused by smoking or even second hand 
smoke.

But over 90% are caused by smoking.  Add second hand smoke into that, 
environmental causes which are under our control and the percent is even 
higher.  And 
what about general ill health caused by bad diet, obesity, lack of activity, 
and bad outlook (like believing that we are predestined by our genes) and how 
many more cases could you write off.

After all this, what role does genetics play?  Not much room left to cause 
much mayhem.






> On the news tonight, they reported a woman died while sitting 
> at a traffic light (in traffic) when a car that had been racing another 
> car slammed into her car, injuring her children and killing the mother. 
>     How was that her fault?


And this would affect your choices in ... what way?

But more to the point, as someone pointed out earlier, our choice (generally, 
overall) in transportation has its consequences.  As a whole we think it is 
so neat to zip around in ton and a half vehicles at fatal speeds that some of 
us ARE going to be killed.  Just as with diseases, all you can do is make the 
odds better in your favor, you can't eliminate the risk entirely and I'm 
quite 
amused at the absolutism that brings it up.  A family that chooses to shuffle 
it's children ot school, to scocer, scouts, ballet, tiddly wink lessons, 
church six times a week, and then go out to eat every other meal is greatly 
increasing their odds of a fatal auto wreck.  Someone who is content to stay 
at home 
(or homestead) and go into town once or twice a month greatly reduces their 
odds of a fatal wreck.  Ya pays your money, ya takes your chances.

The whole thing that started this thread was the mentioning of the idea of 
odds in avoiding disease.  Bringing up countless examples of one remote thing 
that COULD happen or odd exceptions to the rule is the sort of thing that 
people 
do when they don't want to face the reality of their choices.

My take is this:  If you spent your life's energy providing yourself a 
physically vigorous lifestyle, good diet, peaceable envirnonment, and avoided 
bitheringly stupid life choices like smoking .... you would have better odds 
of 
avoiding disease than having access to modern medicine has odds of curing 
those 
diseases.  If anyone has evidence to dispute that, I'd be interested.  But 
citing that Tay Sachs disease exists, or that a small percent of lung cancer 
deaths 
are not due to smoking is not said evidence.