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Page added on January 16, 2016
Save Us from the Tyranny of ‘Settled’ Science
In classrooms across the country, high school students are taught the scientific method. It consists of constructing a doubtful hypothesis and designing a series of experiments to test the hypothesis with the observable facts. After a number of tests prove positive. The student can then take the facts and reach a conclusion. When a conclusion is constantly verified, it is enshrined in what might be called “established” science.
There is a second kind of science that uses methods very different from those of “established” science. In fact, this science, if indeed it might be called such, uses the exact opposite method. It consists of constructing a conclusion and then testing that conclusion with a hypothesis that is repeated over and over again using doubtful data to back it up.
The “logic” of this particular scientific method is that the truth of the conclusion is determined by the number of times the hypothesis is affirmed. With enough repetition, even the data starts to take on the appearance of the truth. The secret is to get as many people and media as possible to parrot the great discovery. At a certain point, the conclusion can be enshrined in a special pantheon that might be called “settled” science, and woe betide any “denier” who dare question it.
Like its cousin “settled” law, “settled” science can be useful even outside its field. It can be employed to silence opposition, impose laws and promote political agendas. It respects no rank or positions. August researchers and famous professors can be toppled from their positions if they express the slightest doubts about a “settled” position. Even the strongest evidence is ignored with disdain and disbelief. Meanwhile the hypothesis mantra is just repeated over and over again.
“Settled” science cases abound in today’s politically-correct times. The most obvious one is the dogma of “global warming.” Many old-school scientists have suffered persecution for calling into question the faulty computer models and fudged data associated with this doctrine. They have even shown that the globe is not warming. Flexible “settled” scientists immediately tweaked the hypothesis to speak of “climate change,” and thus cover both sides.
But facts have never been an obstacle to “settled science” promoters who simply dismiss facts and those who bring them up. Climate Statistics Prof. Caleb Rossiter, for example, found his fellowship ‘terminated’ after his Wall Street Journal op-ed declaring “the left wants to stop industrialization — even if the hypothesis of catastrophic, man-made global warming is false.” In another case, a well-loved and respected doctor who specializes in studies about sexual-risk behaviors has just been expelled from an important medical center in Massachusetts after he raised legitimate evidence-based concerns over the center’s decision to endorse the homosexual lifestyle.
A highly qualified scientist in California found scientific evidence that questioned a dogma of evolutionary thought and was fired after publishing his finding in a peer-reviewed journal. These and so many other cases fill the news and intimidate those who seek the truth.
However, there are those rare times when “settled” science runs into trouble and it becomes too obvious that the conclusions are wrong and indefensible. That is the beauty of “settled” science; it can be easily reversed by merely ceasing to repeat the hypothesis. The loud choruses that yesterday blasted forth the “settled” message, today become eerily silent. It is as if the embarrassing conclusion never existed.
An example of this is the “settled” science of peak oil. For decades, “settled” scientists have repeated the hypothesis that oil production will soon reach its peak and humanity will sink into the darkness of an age without fossil fuels.
The only problem is no one told the oil industry. Over the last decade, oil producers have found so much oil that most people agree there are supplies for decades and decades. The evidence can be seen at every gas pump: there is too much oil around, not too little. And so not much is heard from the peak oilers these days. But that is another beauty of “settled” science; the mantra chanters of one conclusion can easily transition to another mantra without any loss of reputation.
The phenomenon of “settled” science is a sad reflection of the frenetic intemperance of these times. The desire to be free from any moral restraint has reached such a point that even the most exacting and absolute sciences must be sacrificed to the tyranny of human passions. Even reality itself must be altered to conform to the agendas of the liberal establishment. Indeed, “settled” science is not science at all but propaganda that is highly unsettling.
55 Comments on "Save Us from the Tyranny of ‘Settled’ Science"
Go Speed Racer on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 8:32 am
Fundamentalist whining from the church pews. Them thar no good evil scientists. Them thar no good scientists say there is global warming, but our pastor says there ain’t.
sidzepp on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 8:47 am
Dear American Thinker. Methinks you have no concept of what the word thinker means. There is enough hard evidence and scientific study out there that points to the fact that if human activity continues at its current pace we are more than likely in for a rude awakening. The mere fact that the world population has doubled in the last fifty years and the standard of living has increased dramatically for much of the world leads one to conclude that if we continue to develop our economic models on 3% growth, we are going to see a gradual depletion of the resources needed to continue to fuel our consumer based economy that is more concerned with accumulation of trinkets. If you can remove your blinders and see the various crisis that are engulfing the world, whether they be driven by environmental or economic conditions, then perhaps you will realize that many problems need to be addressed in the immediate future. The environment that allows us to live will eventually be our downfall if we continue to abuse it and deny that we our all contributing to the end of “civilization” as we know it.
ennui2 on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 9:16 am
“Dear American Thinker”
I don’t think anyone from that site is going to be visiting this site to read your feedback.
dave thompson on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 9:23 am
This is a frightening piece of writing when you realize the vast majority of people that want to believe it.
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 9:52 am
Apparently, the author, John Horvat, is some kind of scholar according to the site bio.
I can tell, because it’s common among “scholars” “to” “use” “anger” “quotes” “to” “lend” “weight” “to” “their” “scholarly” “arguments”. It’s a core principle of the scientific method, John is going on about. Thanks fer learning us up about it John.
Here’s a book John wrote – sounds real scientific too.
“From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society–Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go”
http://www.amazon.com/John-Horvat/e/B00B8GZ4R4
Xerxes on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 10:40 am
Of course peak oil is complete and utter nonsense. There are thousands of rainbow colored dinosaurs running around the Amazon jungles (the parts we haven’t slashed and burned, of course), and when they die they emit a puff of pixie dust and their bodies melt into a puddle of oil that we can put directly into our Hummers.
I think my hypothesis deserves as much consideration as any of his.
Dredd on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 11:01 am
“there are those rare times when “settled” science runs into trouble and it becomes too obvious that the conclusions are wrong and indefensibl”
Underestimations of sea level change is a good example (The Gravity of Sea Level Change – 3).
dissident on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 11:20 am
The spectroscopic properties of CO2, H2O, N2O, O3, NO2, NO, CH4, CFCs, O2, N2, Argon etc. are 100% settled science. There is 0% chance that O2, N2 and Argon will become IR absorbers. Unless God decides to play a sick joke and make them into absorbers leading to super-massive global warming and extinction of all life on Earth.
ghung on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 12:23 pm
ennui said; “Dear American Thinker”
I don’t think anyone from that site is going to be visiting this site to read your feedback.
Comments are open at the link. I spent a little time stirring up shit over there. I even invoked God 😉 Go for it!
MaxData21000 on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 12:51 pm
“American Thinker” What an Oxymoron!
The American Thinker is perfect, only aware of the last Minute that passed and the next future minute, and nothing else.
Saudi Arabia is flooding the market with cheap oil? Why? Market share control. Temporary market manipulation doesn’t disprove anything.
What about 2 years down the road, with All the Oil Majors drastically cutting CAPEX spending. What’s that about? An oil price rebound.
Look, China is still buying cheap oil and filling it strategic petroleum reservers, and still that’s not enough to tighten oil markets, that’s the Power of Saudi Arabia.
The suckers buy the gas guzzling Pickups and SUVs, and will be stripped of their assets in 2 years time. Guaranteed.
MaxData21000 on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 12:52 pm
In other words, there will be a MASSIVE PICKUP TRUCK SELL OFF in 2 years.
Need a truck? Wait two years.
MaxData21000 on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 12:55 pm
These days anyone who denies Global Warming needs to be in a Mental Institution.
http://climatecrocks.com/2016/01/16/watch-admiral-titley-deconstruct-ted-cruz/
How did this Imbecile get elected?
There is a CRISIS In Rural Education In America.
This is SERIOUS.
WE NEED TO DOUBLE EDUCATION FUNDS TO RURAL REPUBLICAN DISTRICTS WITH NATIONAL EDUCATION STANDARDS.
YOU CAN’T GOVERN WITH ELECTED IDIOTS.
MaxData21000 on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 12:58 pm
Take a look at Republican-WalMart PARADISE:
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/01/15/zhengzhou-china-air-pollution-smog-video/
onlooker on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 1:01 pm
just looking at the video makes me gasp for air. sickening.
Tom S on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 1:44 pm
Several times now, in very conservative editorials, I’ve seen this attempt to conflate global warming theory, with the theory of imminent peak oil. It appears to be some kind of guilt by association. It’s an attempt to discredit climate change and the entire environmentalist cause by pointing out the the severely failed predictions of peak oilers. Of course, climate change theory never had anything to do with hubbert curves etc. Still, I wonder how successful this tactic is of tarring them all with the same brush.
-Tom S
GregT on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 2:31 pm
Climate change is not a theory Tom, it is an observation.
onlooker on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 2:38 pm
Yes and its happening in spades as we speak. Raining in the Arctic in the dead of winter, hurricanes in both the Pacific and Atlantic simultaneously is an example.
James McGinn on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 2:52 pm
Excellent article.
About ten years ago I confronted the “settled science” of global warming. My scientific examination revealed it as plainly inept. That brought me to wonder if there were not other, deeper, ineptitudes. That brought me to meteorology and deeper still, to the core issue regarding the physical chemistry of H2O. And then I made a discovery:
BREAKTHROUGH: Hydrogen Bonding as The Mechanism That Neutralizes H2O Polarity
https://goo.gl/vVmu7g
James McGinn
AKA Claudius Denk
dissident on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 2:59 pm
Do you also have some fine Florida swamp land for sale?
onlooker on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 3:02 pm
Do you also have some fine Florida swamp land for sale?
haha.
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 3:02 pm
Op-ed: The next threat from climate change? Mosquito-borne ‘Zika’
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3411122-155/op-ed-the-next-threat-from-climate
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 3:08 pm
Top Economic Risk of 2016 Is Global Warming
The World Economic Forum suggests climate change remains the most severe challenge to global business
““Climate change is exacerbating more risks than ever before in terms of water crises, food shortages, constrained economic growth, weaker societal cohesion and increased security risks,” Cecilia Reyes, the chief risk officer of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd., one of the organizations that worked on the report, said in a statement.
The WEF document does not paint a sanguine picture.
North America’s eastern seaboard, East Asia, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific are particularly exposed to extreme weather patterns and natural catastrophes, according to the report—a survey conducted in the fall of 750 experts, who answered questions about 29 types of global risk, like cyberattacks, government instability and weapons of mass destruction.
Global climate change threatens top producers of wheat, corn, rice and other agricultural commodities, the report notes. Recent years illustrated the “climate vulnerability of G-20 [Group of 20] countries such as India, Russia and the United States—the breadbasket of the world.”
Hot, dry and tense
Climate change is compounding and amplifying other social, economic and humanitarian stresses globally. It is linked to mass and often forced migration; violent conflict between nations and regions; water crises; and, as the world population rises and simultaneously gets hotter, food shortages, the report reads.
“Forced displacement is already at an unprecedented level,” the authors continue, referring to emigration.
About 70 percent of fresh water humans withdraw globally is for agricultural purposes, according to the WEF, and that figure rises to 90 percent in the world’s poorest countries. Meanwhile, climbing demand for meat, as emerging-market nations become wealthier, squeezes dry already-stressed water supplies across the planet.”
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-economic-risk-of-2016-is-global-warming/?wt.mc=SA_Reddit-Share
BC on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 4:47 pm
The biggest bubble in world history, and thus the bubble of bubbles that will eventually spectacularly burst, is human ape population. Virtually every problem the human ape species faces is caused by us, that is, you and me, i.e., too many of us on a finite, spherical planet in overshoot for human ape population.
One can publicly discuss various sex acts, including with minors and animals, gratutiously violent acts, and all manner of salacious topics, but population overshoot is among the last taboos.
It’s just not cool to remind human apes that they are f&$king themselves and their progeny into abject privation, conflict and violence, and mass die-off within a generation. 😀
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 4:59 pm
Air pollution and traffic fumes tied to infertility risk
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-fertility-airpollution-idUSKCN0UT2MF
Go Speed Racer on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 5:38 pm
they should call it American Stinker.
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 5:47 pm
Greenhouse gas levels and temperatures keep rising
“At the start of the Industrial Revolution, the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 280 ppm. On January 11, 2016, as above image shows, carbon dioxide level at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, was 402.1 ppm. That’s some 143% times what the upper level of carbon dioxide was in pre-industrial times over at least the past 400,000 years, as the image further below illustrates.”
http://arctic-news.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/greenhouse-gas-levels-and-temperatures-keep-rising.html
jjhman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 6:45 pm
I foolishly went to the website and started reading the comments to the article. I couldn’t resist making some snide comments. Then I felt stupid for wasting my time casting pearls before swine.
Anonymous on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 6:46 pm
I think the science is settled, natural selection clearly favors ignorance as a survival trait in the united states.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxoiOJ280LI
Davy on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 7:19 pm
Anonymous this is a good article you should read:
http://www.poletical.com/canadian-anti-americanism.php
GregT on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 8:03 pm
That’s right Davy. The 35 million people living north of the imaginary line drawn along the 49th parallel, with their red and white flag, mostly hate the 320 million people to the south of it, with the red white and blue flag.
Absolutely fucking brilliant you are. Grow up already Davy. Dumb fuck.
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 8:29 pm
Air pollution: a dark cloud of filth poisons the world’s cities
The number of annual deaths caused by pollution around the world is now greater than malaria and HIV combined, according to a recent study, with scientists warning that fatalities could reach 6 million a year by 2050
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/16/winter-smog-hits-worlds-cities-air-pollution-soars
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 8:42 pm
Poor widdle desperate Davy has to scour the web for a 2012 article from some obscure libertarian blog to have his bias confirmed about an evil imaginary mass Canadian anti American movement. Sorry Davy, most Canadians have their heads as far up their asses as you do. Davy the libertarian? Runs counter to your kumbia collapse community message. A libertarian would claim the commons and convert it to a toll road or bridge after collapse.
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 8:48 pm
Davy, I don’t see Canada on this list – must be a conspiracy.
Nine Countries That Hate America Most
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/04/10/nine-countries-that-hate-america-most/
Go Speed Racer on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 9:03 pm
It looks like another battle between Davy and Apneaman. We the audience have seen that before. Can’t can’t can’t we all get along?
Go Speed Racer on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 9:08 pm
That Idiocracy short piece is so real. That really is what the dumb sheeple of the USA are like these days. I have time in both Canada and the USA. The Canadians have more brains and decency, but they trend in the direction of USA, getting a bit worse each year.
GregT on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 9:11 pm
Davy is out of line Go Speed, and as long as he keeps it up, some of us will continue to call him out.
GregT on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 9:20 pm
“The Canadians have more brains and decency”
Canadians are no different than any other group of apes Go. They just haven’t been subjected to as much indoctrination, yet. Something that is rapidly changing. Canadians are for the most part every bit as dumbed down as Americans. So far, fortunately, not as dumbed down as people like Davy, but they’re working real hard at it.
Welch on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 10:31 pm
Ah yes, American Wanker. What a bunch of cretins. Who posts this shit here?
Apneaman on Sat, 16th Jan 2016 11:07 pm
Greg, this country is lost. You cannot even find someone to have an adult conversation with unless you go to a degrowth or environmental lecture and even then it’s only some of them. Green washed magical thinking reformer consumer zombies. Much less violent and stupid, but the vast majority ceded their lives to neoliberal capitalism and its false promises decades ago. It’s just a less brutal Canadian version of it. Sugar coated, but still shit in the middle.
GregT on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 12:39 am
Totally agree Apnea,
If I could have had an adult conversation in corporate Canada, I wouldn’t have quit my “career”, and I probably wouldn’t be spending so much of my time on these forums.
America does not have a monopoly on stupidity, but America is definitely a leader in this respect. Like I have said so many times before; Whatever happens in the US, eventually happens in Canada. We are no better off, just a few years behind, and every bit as stupid.
onlooker on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 1:51 am
yeah Greg and your big brother the US exerts its dominance over you as much and as often as possible. Feel bad actually for Canada and Mexico so close to the US.
GregT on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 2:26 am
As usual onlooker,
Two thumbs up for you.
Davy on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 4:12 am
@ Greg “Absolutely fucking brilliant you are. Grow up already Davy. Dumb fuck.” What is it about Canadian’s and their foul mouths? Canadians have the worst problem with being stuck in their beer drinking adolescence days of “F” this “F” that. You guys are not worthy to be on a board that talks intelligence. What is it about Canadian’s touchiness when they get the least bit of criticism? Canadians on this board spend their entire time on this board bitching and complaining about America. You guys are so insignificant and unimportant I guess. It makes you feel so tough to complain in the safety of your little eeasy chair. What a bunch of pussies.
You take someone like Greg who just flipped his million dollar house in Hongcouver bitching about 1%’er. I think that puts him in that category. Greg is a dumbass climate change hypocrite also. He has all the usual big man toys like RV’s, fishing boats, big gas guzzling pickup but then he whines and moans about climate change and how we are all doomed. When I first came on this board he was checking in with us from Hawaii. A few months later he was complaining about Plantagnet flying to Europe. Can you spell hypocrisy Greg? You are pathetic Greg and make me ill when you and your buddies do your “holier than thou” bs on how good you are and how suck everyone else is. You are the biggest hypocrite on this board.
Davy on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 4:27 am
Ape Turd, you are the king of dirt. You hate everything and everybody except your chums here who line up to form your goon squad when you come under fire. You are a dry drug addict who dwells in his mom’s basement. You do odd jobs which consists of taking out the trash for mom. Basically you are a bum incapable of work. You sit in your basement on your ancient PC blasting out doom while you eat ice cream and chain smoke. You must be a horrible ugly looking creature. Chain smoking and living on ice cream spending your days in a dark basement. Probably fat too and complaining about American’s being fat. Another Canadian hypocrite like your widle buddy Gregger.
The funny thing about your climate change bitching is you are telling the world how screwed they are because you love for them to know it. Your life is a failure so you want others to fail. Drugs and Hep C have ruined you so you want to ruin everyone else. You offer no hope or anything other than people are screwed and they are going to die. You want them to die and horribly. Better yet you want American’s to die. You talk about class warfare and racism but you are the biggest racist on this board. Anyone American (except your chums) is fair game. People of color or lower class in America are fair game because, well, they are American.
Ray on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 7:15 am
By all means, don’t view gravity as “settled science”. Test it out by jumping off of your roof. You will then have a couple of weeks in a cast to contemplate your next experiment.
AL Hopfer on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 10:01 am
About the PPM of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere prior to 1850 (pre-industrial age).
That figure is claimed to be 285 PPM with today’s measurement (Hawaii) being 400 PPM.
It is claimed that ice cores to the depth of 1850-ice layer the measured CO2 is 285.
Measurement of CO2 (Hawaii) also indicate that in 1980 the CO2 PPM was 340.
I wonder if that same ice core showed 340 PPM at the 1980 depth?
Apneaman on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 10:43 am
Davy, did mommy and daddy ship you off to catholic boarding school when you was a widdle 1%er? Did a kindly priest take you under his wing and comfort you in the middle of those long lonely nights? It would explain a lot.
Davy on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 10:56 am
See dumbass what happens when you go to sleep. There are consequences for your hate and bile. I love irritating your sorry ass primarily because you earn it. You are the scum of the earth and nothing gives me more pleasure than putting a verbal boot in your ugly extremist ass. If you attack me I will attack you. I have nothing to lose. You started this mess you scum bag.
Apneaman on Sun, 17th Jan 2016 11:28 am
“I love irritating your sorry ass”
“nothing gives me more pleasure than putting a verbal boot in your ugly extremist ass.”
So you admit you love it and it gives you pleasure, but you expect me and everyone else to believe you did not start it? Sounds contradictory to me seeings how apes are driven by their reward system. Sounds like more 1%er refined excuse making.
BTW, what are these consequence you speak of? You have mentioned them before, yet nothing has changed in the slightest for me. Are you sharpening your knife and making plane reservations for a Vancouver trip? Gonna come straighten me out Davy? Fuck you have a lot of free time. Especially for a father and husband. Two young boys and you spend your days yelling on the internet and goat fucking. I guess that’s why you went and got yourself an eyetalian rent a mommy.
Redbriars on Mon, 18th Jan 2016 4:26 pm
I am a Canadian, and I enjoy articles and stories and comments that try to suggest that we have a national identity. I think, that as a nation, we are a small-l liberal peoples and the USA is more of a small-c conservative nation. But within our nation we have very different regional “identities”, so that we think of Albertans as social conservatives and British Columbians as social liberals. But that is only a gross over-simplification. Like America, we are a nation of diversity. Colorado and Oregon vs. Texas and Oklahoma.
The one thing that I don’t really get about Americans as a whole is the resistance to socialised medicine. In Canada we have a huge medical insurance policy that covers everyone and is paid by everyone, and people like me, who see a doctor once a year (maybe) are happy to pay our health premiums (taxes) so that no-one suffers catastrophic healthcare costs. I have marvelously good healthcare despite living in a rural area, and my late wife’s treatment for cancer was first-class and immediate and incredibly caring. I just don’t get the resistance to single-payer healthcare. I have heard that the best paid CEO’s in America lead HMO’s. Perhaps that’s it.
And I don’t get the American national resistance to acknowledging that climate change is man-made. My small province gets most of its electricity from burning coal or petcoke, and that is not going to change anytime soon, but I don’t deny that the emissions are changing the climate. Yet another green Christmas in my neighbourhood this year, yet when I was boy we always played hockey on frozen lakes well before Christmas.
And I don’t know anyone who hates or despises Americans. Most of my family came from America right after the Revolution and many of them went back two generations later. We are pretty much the same folks.
Hello, cousins.