In Class:
Question to Ponder
What's the primary difference between science and religion?
- a) Science is based on a long-established history.
- b) Science seeks the truth about the world around us.
- c) Science is testable.
- d) Science has no established hierarchy.
What Makes This Enterprise Science?
- Mainly a difference in process.
- The primary tool of the scientist is skepticism.
- Scientists are almost always proved wrong, and they don't mind
it.
Why It's OK to Be Wrong
- Science is intrinsically negative.
- Always testing models, looking for inconsistencies between models
and the observations of the real world.
- Discovering that a model is "wrong" (i.e., inconsistent with the
real world) is good because it forces us to consider other, potentially
better, models.
The Scientific Process at Work:
- Model: It's hotter in July than in January because the Earth is
closer to the Sun in July than in January.
- Consequence: It should be hotter everywhere in July.
- Test: Check to see if it's summertime everywhere on Earth in
July.
- Observation: It's colder in Chile in July than in January.
- Conclusion: Model is invalid.
How to Choose the Next Model to Test
- Causality -- must connect the phenomena with a mechanism for producing it.
- Recycling of old ideas -- choose models that use existing mechanisms,
rather than invented solutions (if possible).
- Simplicity -- The simplest model that satisfactorily explains the
observations is prefferred (Ockham's razor).
How About the "Science" of Astrology?
- Acausal -- no mechanism connecting motions of the planets with
earthly activities.
- Inconsistent with Observations -- repeatedly fails tests
of predictive capacity.
- Unchanging -- even in the face of evidence showing the theory to
be invalid, the astrological model remains unchanged (indeed, it's
remained the same for more than 2000 years).
But It's Just "For Entertainment Purposes" Anyway, So Who Cares?
- I do, for one, and you should, for another.
- Astrology is prejudicial. It places you into arbitrarily-defined
groups and assigns characteristics to you and everyone else in that
group without basis.
- Though it has not (yet) plagued our society in the way racism and
religious persecution have, astrology is the same type of prejudice
and it has the potential to be just as dangerous.
- If we view any form of prejudice as "entertainment," then we
begin to legitimize other, more damaging forms.
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