Correlation is not causation.
Most do not understand that
Correlation.... Causation, them is pretty big words. I guess I better just think what the government tells me to think.
Exactly.
True, but all of science is based on using correlation to prove causation. Inferring causation due to correlation is an example of the logical inference operation called “induction.” The philosopher Hume is famous for proving that “induction” cannot provide an absolute proof, only a probability of truth.
Philosophers of science have struggled with the fact that induction cannot provide absolute proof ever since Hume. The most successful epistemological approaches for dealing with it are Popper’s Critical Rationalism, Bartley’s Pan-Critical Rationalism and Bayesian Inference.
Also, the scientific method is intended to help deal with the problems of induction in general, and ‘proof by correlation’ in particular.