General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Either you believe in the scientific method or you don't [View all]The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)You don't know it's false until it is reviewed. And if someone else is doing the reviewing how soon do they get the reviewing done?
I get you - and I agree it is a great method and have no problem with it or having things peer reviewed. But like physics what appears to be true in all cases may not be and as we get better testing abilities we learn that sometimes what we thought we knew and was right doesn't always work the way we thought.
It is all subject to change as we get better. We learn more, grow, put aside things we think we knew and progress.
Outside of the core process is reporting and politics though. We often hear something smooth like 'scientists today say' which doesn't always mean a lot and does not mean things are indeed as those scientists say they are. So x causes cancer in mice, it is reported on, people get freaked out, and so on (again see Alar scare, which I wrote as mylar in last post).
My comments were related to how a good method, and it is, interacts with society. Again, going to vaccines, they can cause adverse reactions in a few people. Overall they are safe, but not always. When people say simply 'that is woo, they are perfectly safe!' it is simply not true. Even the cdc recognizes problems can occur with them and that doesn't even get into manufacturing processes and recalls (see recent issues with them in China).
Over blowing it and using the few to scare the many is not good either (though we see it with other things, like guns where less than one percent of people who own them harm others with them, or Muslims where the rw takes how a few act and apply it to many and generate fear).
Once more - yes, the process is sound. But it does not address it's application to society, how things are reported or discussed, and often we hear one or two lines of something which doesn't really tell the whole story.
Now we just need a 'reporting method' to match it