Pseudosciences: Collection Of Practices Or Beliefs

Astrology is the use of the relative positions of celestial objects to predict events on Earth. It is an ancient field of study, having been in use thousands of years before common era. Cultures around the world had been looking to the skies for forecasts on happenings in their everyday lives long before Europeans began to do so. In Europe, astrology never established itself as a large influence on society until the Renaissance came around, mostly due to the strict Catholic principles that bound people to a particular set of beliefs. Prior to the Renaissance, according to the Encyclopedia of the Renaissance by Paul F. Grendler, astrology was often “condemned as determinist or unreliable or irreligious.” However, as the Renaissance unfolded,

Crop circles are strange shapes in crops that people believed where UFOs landed, or the work of Earth’s Power. There are many theories on the circles, but the only proven explanation is humans.

Astrology provides you with insights of your life path. It is the study of the movements and comparative positions of heavenly bodies represented as having an influence on human lives and the whole world of nature. It is believed that by the study of planets, moon, stars and other natural bodies in the sky one can understand the past, present and the future. There is a spiritual connection between all the things.

The Scientific American™ defines pseudoscience as “a practice or belief that is known as scientific, but otherwise does not follow an acceptable scientific method, lacks subsidiary evidence or credibility, cannot be consistently tested, or lacks scientific standing.” When studying science, a key to finding “good” science is to make sure it is logical, based on facts and data, not opinions. Pseudoscience tends to appear more in the movie Sherlock Holmes by showcasing the unusual scientific theories used in the film by Holmes and Watson. Many evolutionary biologists and creationists argue over the facts displayed in the movie in order to prove both of their beliefs.

Webster defines anxiety as “fear or nervousness…” while the DSM-5 says “Anxiety disorders differ from developmentally normative fear or anxiety by being excessive… beyond developmentally appropriate periods” (Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, n.d.) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The difference in the two ideas is stark: one is something that everyone experiences and the other is a debilitating disorder. When looking at a pseudoscience article such as the one on PsyBlog, it is easy to see that they are combining the two definitions in order to make their claims better received by the general public.

Technically, pseudoscience is really a form of fallacious thinking. In simplest terms, I define pseudoscience as a false science based on a belief or practice that attempts to validate a claim without any scientific credibility. Generally, the person stating the claim works backward in that they look for proof that meets the needs of the claim. In science, the evidence (or proof) will lead to the claim. For something to be a true science, it must be tested and peer-reviewed. If the discovery can be reproduced over and over then one has something of a scientific claim. Without it, everything else is just pseudoscience.

Crop Circles is still a deeply rooted theory into human brains that suggests there is the existence of extra-terrestrial beings whom want to civilize the earth often referred to as Aliens. Alien existence have been one of the greatest concerns by the human race since they are regarded as advanced technologically. This have continued to be used as a great tool for pseudoscience beliefs by some scientist’s. It is still a mystery and have shown no progress over the years however this continue to instil fear into human race that their species is endangered. More into it scientists have continued to make money through their mysterious publications thus misleading the world. Stunningly this fear has driven some scientist’s to specialise in this field

Aliens and crop circles go together like chocolate and milk, and if you see a crop circle then it signifies alien life. However, how many of these so-called crop circles are real? Well, you could ask this question about everything in life. As with the abduction stories, all it takes is one real crop circle to further blur the lines of people who don't believe in extraterrestrial

Pseudoscience is a belief that is portrayed as scientific but fails to meet scientific criteria. Pseudoscience includes astrology, Young-Earth creationism, iridology, neuro-linguistic programming and water divining, to name but a few.

We can demarcate science from pseudoscience less by what science is and more by what scientists do. Science is a set of methods aimed at testing hypotheses and building theories. If a community of scientists actively adopts a new idea and if that idea then spreads through the field and is incorporated into research that produces useful knowledge reflected in presentations, publications, and especially new lines of inquiry and research, chances are it is science.

This 40 minute video introduction was very informational and entertaining. I never really took the time to actually research and learn more in depth how the world thinks. Pseudoscience has been taking over the world and we are not even aware of it. I believe we should be more skeptical about the different things that we do in life and ask questions to certified, knowledgeable individuals before diving in to what we think might be interesting, but most importantly, conduct our own research.

“There are more crop circle fake than there are fake of all others mysterious happenings put together”(The Mystery of Crop Circles, Oxlade 24). Both television and newspaper have faked circles in an attempt to trick crop circles researchers. In 1991 a British T.V faked a crop circle and then asked an "Earth energy" believer and Dr.Terence Meaden to look at it. The British newspaper Today also tricked one of the leading apologists ( people who study UFOs). In 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley said they created hundreds of crop circles as pranks. Many people think crop circles are caused by nature. Animals could be creating the circles as they feed. Some of the circles might form because of strange weather. Researchers think strong wind patterns

Pseudoscience is known as the false science or a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method. Due to that pseudoscience follows practices like spirit world, ESP, mind reading, and aliens. Which they cannot be copy or repeat successfully. And the science states that for it to

Scientism is the belief that science is the only means of acknowledging reality, it is a philosophical thesis that focuses on facts. On the other hand, religion and spirituality involves the belief in science (to an extent) but also embraces the idea of God’s creations. The tension between scientism and religion, in my opinion, falls exclusively on the fact that science fails to explain absolutely everything. There are some things that just cannot be proven with facts alone. This gives the opportunity for religion/spirituality to fill in the gaps regarding morals and ethics. It is my belief that, as humans, we are simply terrified of the unknown. We feel the need to have an explanation for absolutely everything. When science falls short, religion/spirituality

In his paper Popper talks about and attempts to find a point of demarcation or to create and fix the boundary between that of sciences and pseudo-sciences. Popper states that many of the theories people consider scientific (i.e. astrology) are in fact not and in order for a theory to be truly scientific it must follow a certain criteria. This criteria is the falsifiability, testability, and verifiability of the scientific status of a theory. Each of these claims are interlocking and rely on one another to work. Using these he is able to show what he thinks a true scientific claim should do. Along with that these claims are able to show how theories like astrology can fit into and answer just about any situation or question in life by simply remaining so vague that it cannot be proven wrong.