Alternative Science - no such thing

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glokta

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Alternative Science - no such thing
« on: February 17, 2014, 09:02:10 AM »
This forums title has always bothered me as, by definition, there is no such thing as alternative science - the true title is pseudo science.  Science is defined as "a systematic enterprise that builds and
organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe."
. If any of your theories are proved sound through rigorous testing and peer review they become part of accepted science. On the other hand, Pseudoscience is a claim, belief or practice which is presented as scientific, but does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status. Pseudoscience is often characterized
by the use of vague, contradictory,
exaggerated or unprovable claims, an over-reliance on confirmation rather than rigorous attempts at refutation, a lack of openness to evaluation by other experts, and a
general absence of systematic
processes to rationally develop
theories.
Sound familiar to anyone?
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Space Cowgirl

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Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2014, 12:23:39 PM »
Relax, it just means you can talk about ancient aliens and chemtrails here if you like. You can also talk about accepted science. It's just a forum title meant to be welcoming to all points of view.
I'm sorry. Am I to understand that when you have a boner you like to imagine punching the shit out of Tom Bishop? That's disgusting.

Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2014, 12:34:44 AM »
(you're technically right though)
you can't spell planet without plane. or net... 8)

Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2014, 06:22:40 PM »
Alternative Science came before Science and is still valid.

Example: A person had to INVENT (by intelligent thinking) the CONCEPT of testable Science and then test it and get other people to use it too. And this "Science" works well as long as we confine it to a time and space that follows our discovered laws and rules.

However, there are now many instances where we are trying to peer into the great beyond in both space and time. Our accepted principles may not apply here - as most scientists admit that at the moment of the Big Bang, and at the event horizon of Black Holes (to name a couple), our comfortable laws and rules break down.

Like alternative medicine, alternative science will continue to help our notions of science evolve for the better.
Remember when a doctor would laugh if you told them you thought your ill health was due to stress? Just a few decades ago!

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DuckDodgers

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Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2014, 03:38:34 PM »
If alternative science were right it wouldn't be alternative.
markjo, what force can not pass through a solid or liquid?
Magnetism for one and electric is the other.

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Rama Set

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Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2014, 03:54:07 PM »
Alternative Science came before Science and is still valid.

Example: A person had to INVENT (by intelligent thinking) the CONCEPT of testable Science and then test it and get other people to use it too. And this "Science" works well as long as we confine it to a time and space that follows our discovered laws and rules.

However, there are now many instances where we are trying to peer into the great beyond in both space and time. Our accepted principles may not apply here - as most scientists admit that at the moment of the Big Bang, and at the event horizon of Black Holes (to name a couple), our comfortable laws and rules break down.

Like alternative medicine, alternative science will continue to help our notions of science evolve for the better.
Remember when a doctor would laugh if you told them you thought your ill health was due to stress? Just a few decades ago!

Alternative science is science without evidence.
Aether is the  characteristic of action or inaction of charged  & noncharged particals.

Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2014, 10:29:04 AM »
Remember when a doctor would laugh if you told them you thought your ill health was due to stress? Just a few decades ago!
No, I have no idea when you mean.  That stress can cause ill health has been pretty much recognised throughout history.
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ausGeoff

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Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2015, 03:28:10 AM »
Alternative Science came before Science and is still valid.
Not so.  There is, and has never been such a thing as "alternative" science, or "alternative" medicine.

Alternative is what we skeptics call a "weasel word", which is used by someone when they have zero evidence supporting their personal claims or notions or remedies, and also wish to make a truckload of money ripping off gullible people.

So I agree with the OP that the more acceptable forum title should be Science & Pseudoscience.  But then the flat earthers generally have a distaste for the word "pseudo" because most of their scientific notions should be prefaced by that word.

Pseudosciences are fields that try to appropriate the prestige of genuine sciences, and copy their outward trappings and protocols, but fall far short of accepted standards of practice and verification in the legitimate fields they seek to emulate.  Pseudosciences do not value debate and criticism and rarely show intellectual ferment or genuine progress. Their explanations are usually contradicted by well-established scientific knowledge and their own findings rarely, if ever, withstand scrutiny by competent critics.

The late Nobel Laureate, Richard Feynm an was not only one of the greatest scientific geniuses America has produced, he also had a life-long interest in exposing bogus research, which he liked to call "cargo-cult science".  Feynman described cargo-cult sciences as sham enterprises that present the outward appearance of doing science but have none of its real substance.  As Anthony Pratkanis put it in an article in the Spring 1992 issue of The Skeptical Inquirer, cargo-cult science has the illusion of objectivity, the appearance of careful study, and the motions of an experiment—but lacks one important ingredient: skepticism or a leaning over backward to see if one might be mistaken. The essence of science is to doubt your own interpretations and theories so that you may improve upon them.

—Barry L. Beyerstein PhD, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

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kman

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Re: Alternative Science - no such thing
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2015, 08:59:45 AM »
Flat Earth Theory's are fields that try to appropriate the prestige of genuine sciences, and copy their outward trappings and protocols, but fall far short of accepted standards of practice and verification in the legitimate fields they seek to emulate.  Flat Earth Theory's do not value debate and criticism and rarely show intellectual ferment or genuine progress. Their explanations are usually contradicted by well-established scientific knowledge and their own findings rarely, if ever, withstand scrutiny by competent critics.

-Barry L Beyerstein(ish)
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