He said the researchers set out to learn whether all five religious
variables together had an effect on survival time. Only after the data
were in did they decide to look at each variable independently.
This tactic, Dr. Sloan said, exemplifies what's known in scientific
research as the sharpshooter's fallacy, analogous to the way a
gunslinger might empty his six-shooter into the side of a barn and then
draw the bull's-eye around the bullet holes.
-- Richard P. Sloan (psychologist at Columbia University)
quoted in "Religion and Health: New
Research Revives an Old Debate" New York Times. 5/7/02