[Subjectivist]

Scott Adams has just written a nice blog about how science works and how media causes confusion in the general public about what the science says vs what the media interprets it to be saying. Science only needs one contrary trend to disprove a theory and cause it to be modified but when media likes the theory they actively dispute the contrary information. The media is not science, and even science writers tend to go for flashy stories with little data instead of trying to ferret out what the details are.
More at the link,
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/1098802406 ... ggest-fail
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')oday I saw a link to an article in Mother Jones bemoaning the fact that the general public is out of step with the consensus of science on important issues. The implication is that science is right and the general public are idiots. But my take is different.

I think science has earned its lack of credibility with the public. If you kick me in the balls for 20-years, how do you expect me to close my eyes and trust you?

We humans operate on pattern recognition. The pattern science serves up, thanks to its winged monkeys in the media, is something like this:

Step One: We are totally sure the answer is X.

Step Two: Oops. X is wrong. But Y is totally right. Trust us this time.

Science isn’t about being right every time, or even most of the time. It is about being more right over time and fixing what it got wrong. So how is a common citizen supposed to know when science is “done” and when it is halfway to done which is the same as being wrong?

[dinopello]

On science, the popular media over emphasizes the proclamation and under emphasized the method.

[KaiserJeep]

Once "Science" thought that bad luck, poor crops, destructive weather, and sickness were caused by "spirits".

A bit later, they decided that "bad air" caused sickness.

Once Science thought that the Earth was the center of the Solar System, and tortured anybody who thought different.

Once Science thought that electromagnetic waves were "vibrations" in the invisible "ether" that pervades all space.

Now "some" practitioners of Science believe that humans burning fossil fuels change the Climate worldwide.

I am tempted to say that what "Science" actually is would be an organized way of being wrong - with confidence.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'O')nce Science thought that electromagnetic waves were "vibrations" in the invisible "ether" that pervades all space.

[kuidaskassikaeb]

Dear Subjectivist:

That was a good read.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat’s is science’s biggest fail of all time?

I nominate everything about diet and fitness.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '
')
Once Science thought that the Earth was the center of the Solar System, and tortured anybody who thought different.

[jedrider]

The biggest fail of 'science' has been in public health science. It is NOT really representative of the rest of science IMO. Is Cholesterol 'good' for you or 'bad' for you? I don't even know, so that has been a huge FAIL for 'health' science. It seems to have tarnished the image of science for the general public, whereas, in general, science has been steadily marching forward in all other respects.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'I') am tempted to say that what "Science" actually is would be an organized way of being wrong - with confidence.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'O')nce Science thought that electromagnetic waves were "vibrations" in the invisible "ether" that pervades all space.

[Quinny]

Once someone said that if you get enough monkeys typing they'll produce a work of Shakespeare.

This is not Shakespeare!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'O')nce "Science" thought that bad luck, poor crops, destructive weather, and sickness were caused by "spirits".

A bit later, they decided that "bad air" caused sickness.

Once Science thought that the Earth was the center of the Solar System, and tortured anybody who thought different.

Once Science thought that electromagnetic waves were "vibrations" in the invisible "ether" that pervades all space.

Now "some" practitioners of Science believe that humans burning fossil fuels change the Climate worldwide.

I am tempted to say that what "Science" actually is would be an organized way of being wrong - with confidence.

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'O')nce someone said that if you get enough monkeys typing they'll produce a work of Shakespeare.

This is not Shakespeare!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'O')nce "Science" thought that bad luck, poor crops, destructive weather, and sickness were caused by "spirits".

A bit later, they decided that "bad air" caused sickness.

Once Science thought that the Earth was the center of the Solar System, and tortured anybody who thought different.

Once Science thought that electromagnetic waves were "vibrations" in the invisible "ether" that pervades all space.

Now "some" practitioners of Science believe that humans burning fossil fuels change the Climate worldwide.

I am tempted to say that what "Science" actually is would be an organized way of being wrong - with confidence.

[dinopello]

Washington Post: Why science is so hard to believe.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he scientific method leads us to truths that are less than self-evident, often mind-blowing and sometimes hard to swallow. In the early 17th century, when Galileo claimed that the Earth spins on its axis and orbits the sun, he wasn’t just rejecting church doctrine. He was asking people to believe something that defied common sense — because it sure looks like the sun’s going around the Earth, and you can’t feel the Earth spinning. Galileo was put on trial and forced to recant. Two centuries later, Charles Darwin escaped that fate. But his idea that all life on Earth evolved from a primordial ancestor and that we humans are distant cousins of apes, whales and even deep-sea mollusks is still a big ask for a lot of people.

Shtulman’s research indicates that as we become scientifically literate, we repress our naive beliefs but never eliminate them entirely. They nest in our brains, chirping at us as we try to make sense of the world.

Even for scientists, the scientific method is a hard discipline. They, too, are vulnerable to confirmation bias — the tendency to look for and see only evidence that confirms what they already believe. But unlike the rest of us, they submit their ideas to formal peer review before publishing them. Once the results are published, if they’re important enough, other scientists will try to reproduce them — and, being congenitally skeptical and competitive, will be very happy to announce that they don’t hold up.

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', '
')We learned that in physics class. If you extend random sequences long enough patterns begin to emerge.

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jedrider', 'T')he biggest fail of 'science' has been in public health science. It is NOT really representative of the rest of science IMO. Is Cholesterol 'good' for you or 'bad' for you?

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'O')nce "Science" thought that bad luck, poor crops, destructive weather, and sickness were caused by "spirits".

A bit later, they decided that "bad air" caused sickness.

Once Science thought that the Earth was the center of the Solar System, and tortured anybody who thought different.

Once Science thought that electromagnetic waves were "vibrations" in the invisible "ether" that pervades all space.

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', '
')http://blog.dilbert.com/post/1098802406 ... ggest-fail

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '
')Now "some" practitioners of Science believe that humans burning fossil fuels change the Climate worldwide.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'T')he media never talks for working people and their needs.