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 Phluck
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 Pseudoscience. 
#1072310 - 11/21/02 12:20 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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From "The Skeptic's Dictionary":
"A pseudoscience is set of ideas based on theories put forth as scientific when they are not scientific.
Scientific theories are characterized by such things as (a) being based upon empirical observation rather than the authority of some sacred text; (b) explaining a range of empirical phenomena; (c) being empirically tested in some meaningful way, usually involving testing specific predictions deduced from the theory; (d) being confirmed rather than falsified by empirical tests or with the discovery of new facts; (e) being impersonal and therefore testable by anyone regardless of personal religious or metaphysical beliefs; (f) being dynamic and fecund, leading investigators to new knowledge and understanding of the interrelatedness of the natural world rather than being static and stagnant leading to no research or development of a better understanding of anything in the natural world; and (g) being approached with skepticism rather than gullibility, especially regarding paranormal forces or supernatural powers, and being fallible and put forth tentatively rather than being put forth dogmatically as infallible."
The rest of it has lots of hyperlinks in it, so I'm not going to just post it, check it out here:
http://skepdic.com/pseudosc.html
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"I have no valid complaint against hustlers. No rational bitch. But the act of selling is repulsive to me. I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes." -Hunter S Thompson
http://phluck.is-after.us
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Phluck
Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 11,394
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1072317 - 11/21/02 12:21 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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Here's another good definition:
http://skepdic.com/shoehorning.html
shoehorning:
Shoehorning is the process of force-fitting some current affair into one's personal, political, or religious agenda. So-called psychics frequently shoehorn events to fit vague statements they made in the past. This is an extremely safe procedure, since they can't be proven wrong and many people aren't aware of how easy it is to make something look like confirmation of a claim after the fact, especially if you give them wide latitude in making the shoe fit. It is common, for example, for the defenders of such things as the Bible Code or the "prophecies" of Nostradamus to shoehorn events to the texts rather than truly predict anything.
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"I have no valid complaint against hustlers. No rational bitch. But the act of selling is repulsive to me. I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes." -Hunter S Thompson
http://phluck.is-after.us
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Phluck
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Posts: 11,394
Loc: Canada
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1072322 - 11/21/02 12:23 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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A paragraph to highlight, some of you should read this VERY carefully.
Pseudoscientists claim to base their theories on empirical evidence, and they may even use some scientific methods, though often their understanding of a controlled experiment is inadequate. Many pseudoscientists relish being able to point out the consistency of their theories with known facts or with predicted consequences, but they do not recognize that such consistency is not proof of anything. It is a necessary condition but not a sufficient condition that a good scientific theory be consistent with the facts. A theory which is contradicted by the facts is obviously not a very good scientific theory, but a theory which is consistent with the facts is not necessarily a good theory. For example, "the truth of the hypothesis that plague is due to evil spirits is not established by the correctness of the deduction that you can avoid the disease by keeping out of the reach of the evil spirits" (Beveridge 1957, 118).
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"I have no valid complaint against hustlers. No rational bitch. But the act of selling is repulsive to me. I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes." -Hunter S Thompson
http://phluck.is-after.us
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Anonymous
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1072341 - 11/21/02 12:35 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yes, those are good defintions.
However, beware that no one mistakes science for the worship of science for that is just as liable to lead a person into error.
Methodological naturalism has flaws of its own.
Dogma is a poor basis for any sort of knowledge, and that includes science.
Cheers,
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Phluck
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/10/99
Posts: 11,394
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: ]
#1074682 - 11/21/02 05:52 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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Science is a system. Belief has no place in science, and when it rears its ugly head, you get pseudoscience.
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"I have no valid complaint against hustlers. No rational bitch. But the act of selling is repulsive to me. I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes." -Hunter S Thompson
http://phluck.is-after.us
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Anonymous
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1075860 - 11/22/02 02:30 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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I would hardly call Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity pseudoscience.
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Baby_Hitler
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1075894 - 11/22/02 03:02 AM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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In the future... Shit happens.
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This space for rent
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Phluck
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: ]
#1077078 - 11/22/02 02:07 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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"I would hardly call Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity pseudoscience."
Huh? Neither would I. Where did that come from?
It's a theory, by the way. Not based on belief of any kind. Ask any physicist, even the ones who really like it, they'll tell you there's a pretty good chance it's all wrong.
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"I have no valid complaint against hustlers. No rational bitch. But the act of selling is repulsive to me. I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes." -Hunter S Thompson
http://phluck.is-after.us
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Anonymous
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1077463 - 11/22/02 05:03 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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Einstein had faith in his theory for years until the empirical data came to prove him right.
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Phluck
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: ]
#1079452 - 11/23/02 01:37 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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The theory of relativity has never been proven. It's still a theory. It's a very good theory, with good calculations to back it up.
He may have had faith that it was a good theory, but I'm sure he didn't believe that it was completely true. That's not science.
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"I have no valid complaint against hustlers. No rational bitch. But the act of selling is repulsive to me. I harbor a secret urge to whack a salesman in the face, crack his teeth and put red bumps around his eyes." -Hunter S Thompson
http://phluck.is-after.us
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Anonymous
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1079518 - 11/23/02 02:11 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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"Then I would say you've misread Einstein, Dr. Powell."
Prot
Taken from the movie K-PAX
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 raytrace
Stranger
Registered: 01/15/02
Posts: 720
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: Phluck]
#1079596 - 11/23/02 02:43 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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He may have had faith that it was a good theory
faith ?
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GoBlue!
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: ]
#1079642 - 11/23/02 03:03 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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"Einstein had faith in his theory for years until the empirical data came to prove him right"
I don't know how Einstein came up with the theory of relativity, but I strongly doubt he just made it up out of the blue without using an awful lot of sound scientific reasoning to arrive at his conclusions. Unfortunately, too many people on these boards have theories that have no scientific reasoning behind them.
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 Just stating my thoughts, not trying to offend
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FreakQlibrium
Son of Uncle Meat
Registered: 06/06/02
Posts: 19,058
Loc: Toronto Canada
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 Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: GoBlue!]
#1079686 - 11/23/02 03:18 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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I don't know how Einstein came up with the theory of relativity, but I strongly doubt he just made it up out of the blue without using an awful lot of sound scientific reasoning to arrive at his conclusions.
Hey dere Blue, i was under the impression that he recieved his FINAL enlightening thought on the matter via the intuitive portion of his brain, hence the entire "Eureka" exclamation(as if it had come out of "nowhere").........i mean he had done the requisite work on the intellectual/concious plane, but the matter was finally resolved by the non verbal portion of his brain
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"Being crazier than a shithouse rat is not sufficient grounds for banishment"
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GoBlue!
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I think there's a lot to be said for the use of intuition. But I'd also guess that Einstein followed his intuitive instincts up with a good deal of logic before he went out and spread the word on his theory (after all, who would take him seriously if he didn't have some sort of logic to back his theory up?)
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Just stating my thoughts, not trying to offend
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raytrace
Stranger
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but the matter was finally resolved by the non verbal portion of his brain
exactly!
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FreakQlibrium
Son of Uncle Meat
Registered: 06/06/02
Posts: 19,058
Loc: Toronto Canada
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: raytrace]
#1079713 - 11/23/02 03:42 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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but the matter was finally resolved by the non verbal portion of his brain
that was my OWN undrstanding of things RayTrace, i can't really comment on the accuracy.....but from the little i've read i would be forced to conclude/deduct that was in fact the case
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"Being crazier than a shithouse rat is not sufficient grounds for banishment"
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raytrace
Stranger
Registered: 01/15/02
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by exactly, I mean I absolutely agree
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Anonymous
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: GoBlue!]
#1079806 - 11/23/02 04:32 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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I don't know how much Einstein you have read but he arrived at his conclusions via intuition. His theory, which was proven correct by Eddington in 1919 was formulated by him years before there was any empirical data to prove him correct. I never said he "made it up out of the blue" neither did I intimate it.
I know this flys in the face of the hard-line materialists but that's not my problem. The facts about Einstein are historical.
Cheers,
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GoBlue!
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Re: Pseudoscience. [Re: ]
#1079817 - 11/23/02 04:40 PM (21 years, 4 months ago) |
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I agreed with the fact that intuition may have led to the theory of relativity. My point wasn't to counter this, it was that Einstein would have needed to have logical reaoning in order to sell the theory that was derived via intuition. Empircal data could then follow.
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Just stating my thoughts, not trying to offend
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