Science vs. Pseudoscience

 

Illusion—can a rope cut in half really be made whole again? Is a ghost actually present in a photograph?—was the focus of Joe Nickell, author of books investigating claims of the paranormal. The paranormal, Nickell said, is a question of good science versus bad science, or science and pseudoscience. Some who investigate the paranormal begin with the answer and look only at evidence that proves that answer. Good science, however, requires looking at all evidence to delve behind the illusion. Nickell explained several cases of what were originally thought to be instances of the paranormal by showing the evidence that proved them otherwise. Here is one of them.

The media reported that a flying saucer had crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Nickell investigated and found that the rancher on whose property the crash took place never referred to the debris as a flying saucer; only the media described it that way. The rancher described the material he found as light and consisting of foil, sticks, rubber, string, and tape. The debris matched a balloon with a radar target attached to it. Indeed, a spy balloon sent up by the US government, in what was termed Project Mogul, was lost near Roswell.

When we speak of knowing science we do not mean simply knowing scientific facts (e.g., the distance from earth to sun; the distinction between mammal and reptile, etc.) We mean that one must clearly understand the nature of science itself— the criteria of valid evidence, the testing of hypotheses, the establishment of useful theories, the many aspects of the methods of science which make it possible to draw accurate, reliable, meaningful conclusions about the phenomena of the physical universe. Pseudoscience lays emphasis on unverifiable eyewitness testimony, stories, faked footprints, blurry photos, and tall tales, hearsay, rumor, and dubious anecdotes.

Pseudoscience writers tend simply to make up bogus “facts” where needed, instead of going to the trouble of consulting reliable reference works, much less investigating directly. Yet these fictitious facts are often central to the pseudoscientist’s argument and conclusions! The first edition of any pseudoscience book is almost always the last, even though the book may go through innumerable new printings, over decades or centuries. Compare to science textbooks, which usually see a new edition every few years because of the rapid accumulation of new facts, ideas, discoveries, experiments and insights in science.

One of the most bizarre recent tactics of pseudoscientists is to publish a novel, a work of fiction in which essentially everything is made up by the author - as usual in works of fiction! - but then to turn directly around and treat the completely made-up material as if it were actual, factual and researched. Recent examples of this tactic are The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield (1994), and The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (2003).

Science and pseudoscience are precisely opposed ways of viewing nature. Science relies on, and insists on, difficult, narrow, strict procedures of self-questioning, testing and analytical thinking that make it hard to fool yourself or to avoid facing facts. Pseudoscience, on the other hand, preserves the ancient, irrational, unobjective modes of thought which have given rise to most superstition and to most of the fanciful and mistaken ideas about man and nature... from voodoo to racism; from the flat earth to the house-shaped universe with God in the attic, from doing rain dances to torturing and brutalizing the mentally ill to drive out the demons that possess them. Pseudoscience encourages you to believe anything you want, and supplies many examples of specious "arguments" by which you can fool yourself into thinking your belief has some validity, despite all the facts being to the contrary.

One of the features of pseudoscience is that any particular pseudoscience somehow involves almost all the other pseudosciences. Thus, someone who believes that flying saucers exist and are piloted by space aliens might also claim to communicate with the aliens via a Ouija board*; a spirit medium who is supposedly communicating with spirits of the dead might also claim to be a "psychic" who can read living minds and foretell the future. The explanation for this continuum is that pseudoscience is a manifestation of an entire anachronistic world view, evidence of an individual's powerful belief in an animistic universe that is essentially magical and fundamentally "nonmaterial." No amount of evidence, investigation or fact-finding has ever shaken a pseudoscientist's faith in his delusions.

The popularity of pseudoscience is assured, because it invariably tells us things that are reassuring far past the point of being too good to be true. You are grieving over your beloved lost pet dog? Well, this psychic lady can tell you precisely where to find it, all she has to do is touch its photo! You are 75 years old and in poor health, but this hippy-looking professor says he's right on the verge of discovering how people can live for 5,000 years, even you! Wow, where do we send our money?!? You're 100 pounds overweight and have never been able to slim down? Well, here's a new miracle diet: eat as much as you want of anything you want and still lose weight, by taking this mystical special wonder herb! Only $100 for a 2-week supply!

Moreover, the media provide a continuous bombardment of sheer nonsense, misinformation, fantasy and confusion - proclaimed to be “true facts.” Sifting sense from nonsense is an almost overwhelming job. A typical reporter asked to write an article on astrology thinks he has done a thorough job if he interviews six astrologers and one astronomer. The astronomer says it's all total bunk; the six astrologers say it's great stuff and really works and for $50 they'll be glad to cast anyone's horoscope. Everything in pseudoscience seems to generate something for sale; look for courses in how to remember past lives, how to do remote viewing, how to hunt for ghosts, how to become a prophet, how to heal yourself of any disease mentally, how to get the angels on your side, how to... you name it, you got it... but pay up first.

It is, unfortunately, vital for each citizen to learn to distinguish carefully between science and pseudoscience. In a democracy, every voter must be capable of seeking and recognizing authentic sources of information. Pseudoscience often strikes educated, rational people as too nonsensical and preposterous to be dangerous, a source of amusement rather than fear. Unfortunately, this is not a wise attitude. Pseudoscience can be extremely dangerous. Penetrating political systems, it has justified atrocities in the name of racial or religious purity; penetrating the educational system, it drives out science and sensibility; penetrating the health professions it dooms thousands to unnecessary death or suffering; penetrating religion, it generates fanaticism, intolerance, and holy war; penetrating the communications media, it makes it nearly impossible for voters to obtain factual information on public issues of extreme importance.

So, to overcome illusion we have to resort to a bit of critical thinking the goal of which is to arrive at the most reasonable beliefs and take the most reasonable actions.

 

NOTES:

*A Quija board (correctly pronounced "wee-jah" /wiʤə/ although often pronounced "wee-gee" ) is any flat surface printed with letters, numbers, and other symbols, to which a planchette or movable indicator points, supposedly in answer to questions from people at a séance. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette that then moves about the board to spell out messages.

 

VOCABULARY WORK

15 Find the words in bold in the text, put them in either column “SCIENCE” or “Psuedoscience” and match them with nouns to make collocations. Explain their meanings.

SCIENCE

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