Pseudoscience: Characteristics of Living Things

Article Summary

Carl Sagan was one of the first to bring to the mass public a toolkit for deciphering

science from pseudoscience. Many other great minds have continued this tradition, and

Mr. Dunning compiled a list of 15 points that will help you spot pseudoscience, of

which, I will only be specifying 5 of them. 1. Does the claim meet the qualifications of

a theory? A theory must be specific enough to be falsifiable by testing, and must be

repeatable by others. Pseudosciences will generally claim some excuse why they can't

be tested. The second point of Mr. Dunning’s podcast says that, if the claim is said to be

based on ancient knowledge, it is not based on scientific evidence and is intended to

fool you into thinking it must have merit. 3. Was  the claim first announced through

mass media, or through scientific channels? When a belief is first announced through

mass media, it's usually because its proponents chose not to subject it to the scrutiny

of peer review. Accordingly, to the fourth point of Mr. Dunning’s podcast, if the claim

is based on the existence of an unknown form of energy or another paranormal

phenomenon, those terms are utterly meaningless in any scientific context. Continuing

with the fifth point of the podcast, claimants who state that their claim is being

suppressed by authorities usually offer a really frail excuse for why mainstream

scientists don't take their claim seriously or why scientific journals won't publish their

articles.

References

 Dunning, B. "How to Spot Pseudoscience." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, 6

Apr 2007. Web. 28 Jan 2023. <https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4037>