Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
From denying evolution and climate change on the Right to the silliness of the anti-vaccine crowd, to the hysteria over perfectly safe non-organic food, GMOs, and animals treated with antibiotics when they are sick (and have their meat only sold by law once the antibiotics are well out of their system) from the Left, science is under attack. People are refusing to look at peer-reviewed evidence, and instead only rely on things that support their agenda, claiming everything else is biased and unreliable. And if we teach our children about science in public schools in order to obtain these skills, we decry the public education system. It's not just a one-sided problem, it's an American (and possibly worldwide) problem.
When and how did we get this way? Do we even care about learning and making arguments from evidence as a society anymore? Can anything be done to fix this, or is it too late?
mostly because science these days has a huge political element involved in them. if you can get politics COMPLETELY OUT of science, then perhaps the credibility will return over time.
The THEORY of evolution is still a theory although there has been enough evidence compiled over the last hundred or so years for me to take it as fact. The THEORY of climate change needs a few more decades of evidence before I believe it. Just Google 'ice age prediction' to see the differing theories.
How often is peer reviewed anything shown to be wrong? To me it seems like I review your paper, he reviews mine and you review his, etc. It's just a big circle.
mostly because science these days has a huge political element involved in them. if you can get politics COMPLETELY OUT of science, then perhaps the credibility will return over time.
Ummm, I'm not sure how you get politics out of any human endeavor. Even if you built a fleet of robots capable of doing research, politics would be involved in how they were built, who builds them, and how they are programmed to decide what question to study next.
mostly because science these days has a huge political element involved in them. if you can get politics COMPLETELY OUT of science, then perhaps the credibility will return over time.
From denying evolution and climate change on the Right to the silliness of the anti-vaccine crowd, to the hysteria over perfectly safe non-organic food, GMOs, and animals treated with antibiotics when they are sick (and have their meat only sold by law once the antibiotics are well out of their system) from the Left, science is under attack. People are refusing to look at peer-reviewed evidence, and instead only rely on things that support their agenda, claiming everything else is biased and unreliable. And if we teach our children about science in public schools in order to obtain these skills, we decry the public education system. It's not just a one-sided problem, it's an American (and possibly worldwide) problem.
When and how did we get this way? Do we even care about learning and making arguments from evidence as a society anymore? Can anything be done to fix this, or is it too late?
The climate always changes. Organic food is way too expensive and the certification process is suspect. Vaccines are safe. Peer review is like minded people agreeing to the same thing.
Divine utterances > personal observations for many religious people. Therefore, even though emperical evidence may point towards an evolutionary history, it cannot be if it is contrasting to the divine decree which is the framework of all other truth.
Skepticism is the other one. Given the complexity and # of variables, predictions and causes of climate are too complex to be accurately determined.
Europe has anti-science elements as well, mainly GMOs and nuclear power. In these areas, I think Americans actually look at the emperical evidence much more than the rest of the developed world.
The THEORY of evolution is still a theory although there has been enough evidence compiled over the last hundred or so years for me to take it as fact. The THEORY of climate change needs a few more decades of evidence before I believe it. Just Google 'ice age prediction' to see the differing theories.
How often is peer reviewed anything shown to be wrong? To me it seems like I review your paper, he reviews mine and you review his, etc. It's just a big circle.
This is actually a good opportunity to contrast the common usage of the word "theory" with the scientific usage of the word "theory."
According to my Google search: "As used in science, a theory is an explanation or model based on observation, experimentation, and reasoning, especially one that has been tested and confirmed as a general principle helping to explain and predict natural phenomena. Any scientific theory must be based on a careful and rational examination of the facts." In science, that's about as strong as you can get. Theories such as evolution, plate tectonics, gravity, and such are consistently scientifically tested and held up in these tests. Interestingly, I don't think climate change would qualify as a scientific theory since it is somewhat limited in scope, but it is related to scientific theories and laws such as thermodynamics.
Believe it or not, science, like any discipline, can be relatively cutthroat with rival factions trying to prove and disprove each others' findings. Many scientists have huge egos. So sometimes peer review is a big circle, but it might not always be that way.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
