One of my readers (thanks Allyson) has directed me to an article on the Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science. Most of them are familiar to skeptics but they deserve to be more widely publicized. Here are seven ways to recognize a kook.
- The discoverer pitches the claim directly to the media.
- The discoverer says that a powerful establishment is trying to suppress his or her work.
- The scientific effect involved is always at the very limit of detection.
- Evidence for a discovery is anecdotal.
- The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries.
- The discoverer has worked in isolation.
- The discoverer must propose new laws of nature to explain an observation.
8. The discoverer does not critically evaluate contrary evidence.
8 comments :
I read the article as well and thoroughly enjoyed it. I bookmarked it and will definitely refer back to it for woo posts and when reading controversial claims.
I like your eighth point too.
I would add one more: There is no possible way in which the claims can be invalidated. This could be through lack of detail, equivocation, circular reasoning, ad-hoc explanations, claims that the rules of science do not apply to the claim, or because the claim is compatible with any possible observation. For instance the cold fusion example lacked sufficient detail to test it, and any attempts that were made were met with equivocation and ad-hoc explanations. Most quack medical claims are formulated in such a way that if the victim gets better the "treatment" is responsible but if they don't it is their own fault.
Speaking of bogus science:
Genesis in the classroom concerns educator
Last Updated: Thursday, May 3, 2007 | 3:03 PM MT
CBC News
An education professor at the University of Calgary is concerned that religion is being taught in a handful of Alberta public schools.
Cochrane's Mitford Middle School will launch a Christian program this fall. Christian beliefs, including instruction on creationism in science class, will be taught to 50 or so elementary aged students as part of a two-year pilot project.
But Darren Lund, who teaches in the university's education faculty, said religion doesn't belong in a publicly funded school system.
"I certainly think parents have the choice to opt out of an inclusive public system, but they should pay for that schooling themselves," he said.
"If they want their children to be in an exclusive, religious school, segregated by religion, then I think that's where parents have to put up the money for that."
Dividing children by religion limits the diversity and inclusion in the public school system, he added.
Creationism in science class
Many of the program's students will be children who had been home schooled.
Bill Bell, Mitford's principal, said Christian beliefs will be woven through every subject in the new Christian program. Creationism will be taught in science class, he added. "The first teaching will be from a Christian point of view and then there will be an acknowledgement that there is another theory."
As a corollary to item 2, one might add the discoverer compares himself/herself to Galileo.
Thanks for this post - if more people were clear on what science is, there would be fewer people promoting ID and young-earth creationism (much less foisting them on our science classrooms). If students used these methods they would also stop coming to my classes with 'exciting finds' about supposed chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea. America needs a healthy does of the scientific method to counter our current trend towards credulity.
http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/blog
Carl Sagan has a chapter called "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection" in his book "The Demon-Haunted World" that has a similar list, mainly of logical fallacies often employed by purveyors of pseudoscience. Readers interested in scepticism might enjoy it, and the rest of the book.
The post by Anonymous concerning teaching creationism in some Alberta public schools is very disturbing. I will forward it to the Canadian Geoscience Education Network (CGEN) which is part of the Geological Association of Canada (GAC) for discussion and possible action. The group is having a meeting in Yellowknife in late May as part of the annual GAC/MAC meeting. The warning signs of bogus science tenets should be mandatory in all science education classes.
Yes, this list is a one-liner ditillation of Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit.
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