Reasonable People Doubt Science By Joel Achenbach: Article Analysis

Within the article titled “The Mistrust of Science” by Atul Gawande, the article is a written document of an address at the California Institute of Technology and describes the connection of science to every single human on Earth. This is done because the presenter defines science as “a systematic way of thinking” since science allows humans to contemplate beyond the information being given to them at any time, such as the questions may follow of how, when, where, why, and how? The presenter states the opinion that, no matter what major you are declared as or the type of occupation you hold, science is embedded into the way you are living, despite you not having any knowledge of certain science topics.

Science should not be seen as a collection of facts, concepts, and useful ideas about nature, or even the organized analysis of nature, although both are common definitions of science. Science is a means of examining nature. In other words, science is a method of discovering reliable knowledge about nature. There are other ways of learning knowledge about nature; nevertheless science is the only way that results in getting hold of of reliable knowledge. Dependable knowledge is material that has high viewpoint of accuracy because its certainty has been defendable by a reliable technique. Reliable data is called standard correct idea, to distinguish reliable facts from belief that is false and unjustified. Every person has beliefs, nonetheless not all facts is steadily true and acceptable. Science is a method

     Recently, education appeared as the truth. Perhaps people in the science field and I wanted facts, proof for the truth. Charles Darwin had come up with the idea of natural selection and the theory of evolution in the 1800’s. The questions and answers offered by science are more plausible. Scientists struggle with these questions every modern day. Open-minded people question and look for answers. Science suggests that religious ideas are incorrect.

W: What are sceptics? Sceptics are those who believe we have not come to the final answer, so they continue to research and learn about it to no end (185). This state in sceptics is perpetuated by uncertainty in a final answer, so further pondering and research is done on it (185).

“There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. Our political life is also predicated on openness. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as [we] are free to ask what [we] must, free to say what [we] think, free to think what [we] will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress.”

According to Jan-Willem van Prooijen, “I propose that these psychological processes are characterized by the joint influence of at least two complementary factors, namely subjective uncertainty, and a social concern for others”(Prooijen para 4). Later on he stated it was from a social hierarchy(actors, media stars, and political leaders) in which we believe in. Based on Prooijens proposal I agree to a point with the process. I first gained my knowledge of conspiracy theories from a well known Youtuber, Shane Dawson. Once I was introduced, I fell in love them these ideas. Taken from a non believer standpoint, I can understand how they agree with what their eyes have seen and what political leaders tell them. It is also very difficult to wrap your head around something you have known for many years to come out a different way. It is very hard to understand why a flight carrying 239 people can suddenly vanish without a trace with nothing left behind or the how the government restricts us from a highly private area, area 51, and won’t explain the means behind it. Or while we have thought for multiple years that we had someone step on the moon when now we easily think it could have been faked out. The believers and non believers have a somewhat understanding of each other. Everyone just needs to accept and appreciate the opinions of one

As you can see in many situation people will mistake their beliefs and assumptions for something that is true and backed up with facts. In order to be able to distinguish what is true and what

When we do anything, it is influenced by our past and the people around us. If we walk across the street or play a game, we are consciously or subconsciously motivated and swayed by the lessons and suggestions from people around us to walk or play a certain way. This is the same case for reading or listening to scientific concepts and theories as we try to compare and test them against what we have learned before, even if neither of them are factual or heavily supported by others. For example, when my family and I were visiting an apartment, the landlord kept talking about the benefits and advantages of Vitamin C, referencing a novel he read as a child; however, once we left the complex, my father told us that this was not completely true,

He asserts that the scientific method of thinking is both disciplined and imaginative, and it helps people understand how the earth is, instead of how they want to view it. Sagan states that science operates much better compared to all other systems since it has a "built-in-error-correcting machine. " Pseudoscience and superstition get in the way of most of the general public's capacity to appreciate the benefits and beauty of science. Skeptical thinking enables persons to construct, understand, reason and acknowledge invalid and valid

The scientific revolution had arisen new ideas to the scientific community that would have an impact to many religious communities. The creation of new tools allowed human to test ideas and theories that would confirm or deny previous assumptions. Pseudoscience was a form of science that would introduce many absurd ideas that could be denied with current evidence. However, many scientific theories and assumptions are fallible and could be disproven and thus created pseudoscience. Michael Shermer wrote an article that explains the main problem with pseudoscience as he states, “The boundary problem between science and pseudoscience, in fact, is notoriously fraught with definitional disagreements because the categories are too broad and fuzzy

Questioning the present and the past is the way of learning for the future through searching the known and unknown and rethinking the way science is taught. I agree with Thomas’ underlying statement that the fun has been taken out of science. There are volumes of students slugging through college and med school for a title and not for their love of science. An even more sad realization are that kids are not even pursuing a scientific career because of the idea that everything has already been figured out and there is nothing left to discover. This is the current day problem, kids are turned off by the field of science. The only way to revive it is to ask questions. If people don’t start asking questions about what has been discovered, then there is nowhere to go. There is the possibility that things scientists have figured out are wrong, but no one will know if it isn’t questioned or looked deeper

As humans, it is our nature to be very scientific and objective. We always want results and answers base on science. Even simple problems that we encounter in our daily life we always want science to be part of it. We always want to see answers even though it is hard and impossible to do and see.

or that death is not the end. There is no way to prove that this is

When a new scientific theory or claim is made, the scientist tries to confirm it is the truth by using new technology to test out their idea. Some of the time, their old claim is outdated or falsified and they must admit they were wrong. Remember before 2006 people thought Pluto was the 9th planet from the sun? International Astronomical Union changed the status of Pluto by reclassifying as a dwarf planet because it did not meet the criteria of a planet. More significant claims have been made and many people are aware of some well-known superseded scientific theories and wonder why they were believed to be true in the first place.

Disagreement may aid the pursuit of knowledge in the natural and human sciences because disagreement leads to new discoveries. Disagreement is about gathering reliable knowledge as well as using this newfound knowledge, and occurs when a group fails to reach a consensus over the logic of an argument. Knowledge is composed of facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. Two areas of knowledge that are impacted by disagreement are human science and natural science. Human science is the study of human behavior and how humans gather information. Natural science is a branch of science that deals with the physical world. In order for a disagreement to occur, one must be familiar with the subject and have his or her own prediction that is different from the norm. Therefore, to advance knowledge in the areas of human and natural science, people must disagree. The roles of logic, reason, and emotion will be investigated to see how they are used to help gain new knowledge in both human and natural science.