Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on August 10, 2012 at 6:25am

Can you imagine a field of study where you'd have to do more ignoring of contraindicated results than a Christian Science study of faith / prayer healing?  The very concept boggles the mind!  Doubtless they congratulate themselves about dispatching a minor headache or a cut on their arm or something equally insignificant.

Now ... if they wanted to really IMPRESS me, they could heal Oscar Pistorius!

Permalink Reply by Edward Teach on August 10, 2012 at 6:51am

It is crazy making! I talked with a guy last night who assured me that: aliens are among us, the Luminoty is quite active, interdemensional travel is happening all the time, and that the government has had technology to deactivate the forces of gravity and provide perpetual sources of energy since 1910. I started to bring up issues with fringe science, but the guy was such a passionate conspiracy theorist, I decided just to bow out and get a beer. 

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on August 10, 2012 at 6:56am

Tell him for me if he can catch an alien (and positively identify it as such), he'll have a believer.  UNTIL such time...!

Permalink Reply by Tammy S on August 10, 2012 at 8:43am

Sounds like you met my cousin... a guy who used to exhibit what passed for intelligence prior to moving out to the country all by himself and deciding to go 'off the grid', now we all have to resist the urge to make aluminum foil hats for him... I find we leave a lot of family gatherings early when he shows up, at least he saves me calories!

Permalink Reply by Edward Teach on August 10, 2012 at 10:28am

LOL!!! Conspiracy theory must be emotionally appealing to a lot of people.

Permalink Reply by Boothby171 on August 10, 2012 at 10:11pm

You do know, of course, that GOD HATES AMPUTEES!!!

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

Permalink Reply by Edward Teach on August 11, 2012 at 10:47am

Love that one!

Permalink Reply by Steven Paul Leiva on August 10, 2012 at 8:27am

I went to the full Wikipedia article and saved for future reading. Sounds fascinating. Thanks for posting!

Permalink Reply by Edward Teach on August 10, 2012 at 10:32am

I swear, I think this may be THE fundamental error in human reasoning. Even good science starts with a hypothesis. This almost guarantees some level of confirmation bias. Maybe an additional step to the scientific method should be that the developer of the hypothesis must pass the ball to an impartial third party. 

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on August 10, 2012 at 10:58am

But other people already DO check the hypothesis.  That is what peer-review is for and then other scientist check it out.

Permalink Reply by Edward Teach on August 10, 2012 at 12:14pm

True that... also replicated results from multiple sources balances the scales. Unfortunately, every new study that comes out and is immediately publicized in the media feels like a nugget of gold, even though statistically the results of one study mean very little.

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on August 10, 2012 at 12:17pm

Yeah, I hate the way the media jumps on a study like that.

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