Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Is there something wrong with the scientific method?

Jinn · 01-24-2011, 02:49 PM

I plowed (aptly) through this stinking pile of garbage at great pain. This article boils to the the common plea *OF* pseudoscience, that the scientific method itself, that empiricism or materialism are somehow inherently dirty, that they just don't know to measure the natural world and all of its dimensions and chakras and kis and "molecule vibrations." It reaches for some sort of luke-warm epistemology where we really can't Know Anything and evokes a false equivalence where peer-reivewed science has an equal chance as religion, or homeopathy at getting things right.

Now I'll deign the philosophical argument about the limitations of materialism, but if we provisionally conclude that things CAN be known about the material world and that they are objectively true or false relative to the frame of the (shared) observers, then science and the scientific method are the best human invention and the absolute best way of acquiring useful knowledge.

One raving lunatic (or even thousands) questioning the efficacy of the paradigm itself because a few drugs aren't as effective as they were thought is foolish and ridiculous, and I have a hard time even reading a portion of this article after the first reading. Science fails, results are falsified, results are omitted, good results are hyped and bad results ignored, etc., etc., it all happens because we're all human. But it has the best checks and balances, and it is all ironed out over time. If it weren't for science we'd still be geocentric cavemen. I'm sure ten years from now our understanding of the supposed failure of these drugs will be so far advanced to make our current understanding laughable. The same can't be said for the archaic bullshit of snake-oil peddlers and pontificating clergy.

01-24-2011, 02:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
Jinn Lover - Protector - Teacher Location: Seattle, WA	I plowed (aptly) through this stinking pile of garbage at great pain. This article boils to the the common plea OF pseudoscience, that the scientific method itself, that empiricism or materialism are somehow inherently dirty, that they just don't know to measure the natural world and all of its dimensions and chakras and kis and "molecule vibrations." It reaches for some sort of luke-warm epistemology where we really can't Know Anything and evokes a false equivalence where peer-reivewed science has an equal chance as religion, or homeopathy at getting things right. Now I'll deign the philosophical argument about the limitations of materialism, but if we provisionally conclude that things CAN be known about the material world and that they are objectively true or false relative to the frame of the (shared) observers, then science and the scientific method are the best human invention and the absolute best way of acquiring useful knowledge. One raving lunatic (or even thousands) questioning the efficacy of the paradigm itself because a few drugs aren't as effective as they were thought is foolish and ridiculous, and I have a hard time even reading a portion of this article after the first reading. Science fails, results are falsified, results are omitted, good results are hyped and bad results ignored, etc., etc., it all happens because we're all human. But it has the best checks and balances, and it is all ironed out over time. If it weren't for science we'd still be geocentric cavemen. I'm sure ten years from now our understanding of the supposed failure of these drugs will be so far advanced to make our current understanding laughable. The same can't be said for the archaic bullshit of snake-oil peddlers and pontificating clergy. __________________ "I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel Last edited by Jinn; 01-24-2011 at 02:52 PM..