ALL (!) data

must be reported...

cherry picking is cheating

Pseudoscience

is an explanation that is presented as science but does not follow the scientific method, is based on incorrect premises,
and relies on no data or data obtained from
a flawed experiment. 

can you identify each?

Scientists are the TOUGHEST critics of other scientists =
peer review

why are sooo many people unwilling/unable  to recognize 
 science fact 
vs
science fiction?

why do people actively DENY science?

what is the 
​scientific process?

1. Intelligent Design
is a pseudoscience that patterns Creationism with supporters insisting it be taught as an alternative "science". ID is a pseudoscientific set of beliefs based on the idea that life on earth is so complex that it cannot be explained by the scientific theory of evolution and so it must have been created by an "intelligent designer". 

In the eighteenth century, theologian William Paley developed a famous metaphor for creationism, the skilled watchmaker.  A book called The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
explains how the complex process of natural selection is blind, working without vision.

lawmakers in 20 states have filed legislation this year to expand nonmedical exemptions for vaccinations 

   a testable hypothesis
is a
 ​ testable explanation

data must be presented
​ "correctly"
to support the hypothesis

2023 cause for concern...
West Virginia’s public-education system is underfunded and poorly ranked. Just 28 percent of WV students are proficient in science. Now WV lawmakers are working to pass SB 619
which would allow public schools to teach intelligent design as an alternative to evolution when explaining how humanity came to exist.

a data set composed of just a few subjects can't control for chance outcomes...

  experiments must control for variables...

 Can you identify other pseudoscience claims that have made it into our mainstream society?

​2. ​vaccinations falsely linked to autism
The false claim that vaccines cause autism was introduced in the 1990s but
really hit mainstream early in this century. There is NO data that links
 vaccination and autism. Celebrities promoting this pseudoscience include Jenny McCarthy
who has an autistic son.  Andrew Wakefield who published the original research which supposedly showed a link between vaccines and autism, admitted to falsifying the data.
In May, 2010, his medical license was revoked. 
There is a scary anti-vaccine conspiracy movement that argues large pharmaceutical companies and governments are covering up information about vaccines. Conspiracy theorists also promote the idea that pharmaceutical bribe researchers to fake their data, cover up evidence of the harmful side effects of vaccines, and inflate statistics on vaccine efficacy.
​(Jolley and Douglas 2014)
Conspiracy theories often rely on circular reasoning...evidence against the conspiracy
is used by those promoting the lies as evidence for it.

the modern rise of  pseudoscience...

science fact        vs       science fiction

the danger when disinformation is spread by mass media...
​a decreased use of vaccinations in the United States resulted in a seven-fold increase in measles outbreaks. 

Inserting Intelligent Design in public schools violates the First Amendment's  Establishment Clause which prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion” and forbids the government from establishing an official religion or government actions that unduly favor one religion over another.

the danger when disinformation is spread by public figures...
"Americans who relied most on
the former president and then
White House coronavirus task force for C-19 news in the early days of the pandemic were those least likely to have been vaccinated against the virus." 
​Pew Research Center

   a testable hypothesis:
there are more licensed dogs than licensed cats in the U.S.

​an untestable hypothesis:
dogs are better pets than cats

examples