Friday, April 9, 2010

The Woo-Woo Definition of "Science"

I've noticed that when someone writes a post asking people to think critically and apply logic to a really bad idea, some true believer is bound to show up.

One of my favorite types of true believers are the ones that say they agree with us and use the scientific method. So we should accept their opinion that their particular Gris-gris is perfectly acceptable.

My recent run-in with this type was over at Jimmy Blue's place.

The woo basically said that since he believed in the scientific method, his beliefs are valid. Unfortunately he didn't understand that one actually has to apply said method to your belief.


So that has led me to ask myself "what do woos think science is?"

Well, they don't require testing (thereby forgoing any replication of results) and don't require any evidence produced by the scientific method (which is of course, the best way we know how to describe things and explain how the universe works) and most of the time they ignore any contradictory evidence. So this leads me to my conclusion.

The Woo-Woo Definition of Science

I can make up whatever I like the sound of and if other people agree with me, I'm right.

2 comments:

  1. Science would be really fun if I could just make crap up and have it somehow work.
    It's more like: There are rules of the universe, and if you try to do things against those rules, it won't work. So we should work hard to experiment and discover those rules, so that the things we do aren't utter wastes of time.
    Woo-Woo's treat the rules like legislation. "If we protest really really really hard, maybe they'll repeal it."

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  2. Exactly. I guess that's a basic reason why we do these blogs in the first place; to cut through the bullshit wastes of time and dedicate resources to things that work.

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