Thursday, August 16, 2018

When do people deny science?

I answered this question on Quora. People deny science when they....
  1. Politicize the science
  2. Insist that the science in one area or another is settled (science is never settled)
  3. Argue that there is only one form of the scientific method
  4. Draw conclusions that extend beyond the specific area of investigation
  5. Prejudice Rationalism over Empiricism
  6. Insist that public opinion determines the result
  7. Deny whole bodies of research as the outcomes may be inconvenient to the status quo
  8. Fail to challenge the bias of authority (people in power)
  9. Fail to report on the limitations of a specific scientific model
  10. Use terms that have no meaning in a scientific sense
  11. Promote pseudo-scientific junk that has an emotional utility
  12. Selectively use statistics to distort the result
  13. Fail to insist that experiments ought to be replicated
  14. Fail to understand the limitations of science and employ its methodology in areas which extend beyond the material
  15. Insist that science ‘proves’ something when in reality it provides more evidence in support (or against) a certain model - science is inductive not deductive.

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