Quote:
Originally Posted by ledroit  There is a trick to questions like this. If you imagine that you alone are the only one living in reality, then you can make decisions on your own about what is real and what is fantasy.
But if you understand that reality is what all of us, including scientists, are interested in, the more interesting question is how scientists separate fact from fiction, and how the community of researchers, all over the world, can test their assumptions about reality.
"Beliefs" have to be oriented toward reality, not fantasy, or they are not worth much. We need to have reality checks on what we know and don't know, if we do want live with each other in the real world, and talk about things like health and disease objectively.
Have you studied the methods used in science or psychology or philosophy to verify claims about things that exist in reality and are not simply imagined?
There is a whole community of people working on questions like these, and some of them are actually very competent. |
ledroit,
This is the crux of it. I wish I had a succinct way of making this point. The point being that scientific conclusions are made through a process that is different than just debating issues and adding up the score. One might find flaws with how it is conducted at one point in time or another, but without it we are screwed.
All these denialists work outside the process and bring their case right to the public, where it can't be challenged so rigorously. This is the first sign of crackpot denialism. They all justify it by insinuating that the established professional community is compromised so it is not to be trusted.
With HIV denialism, it's Big Pharma that has bought out all the scientists. With Evolution denialism, it is science following an Atheistic agenda, therefore not being objective. With holocaust denialism, naturally it is the Jews that influence the historians, etc.
I submit that outside the scientific community any debate is interesting, but not much more valuable than bar room conversation.