Michael Shermer: Baloney Detection Kit

The first video from RDF TV!

With a sea of information coming at us from all directions, how do we sift out the misinformation and bogus claims, and get to the truth? Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine lays out a "Baloney Detection Kit," ten questions we should ask when encountering a claim.

The 10 Questions:
1. How reliable is the source of the claim?
2.Does the source make similar claims?
3. Have the claims been verified by somebody else?
4. Does this fit with the way the world works?
5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim?
6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point?
7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science?
8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence?
9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?
10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?

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[sockyquest]

This should be required viewing in schools.

[TimothyArends]

Shermer always brings up the global warming skeptics, but that's not paranormal. If anybody was really worried about global warming, wouldn't they be in favor of immigration control? More people = more pollution. Duh. Shermer's right about one thing: it's all politics.

[cayetanoluis2]

Yay for science!

[photopicker]

@officernarc Thanks. I am an embedded systems engineer with over 30 years experience and I have a pretty good handle on the scientific process. What isn't clear is why experience which due to the ontological gap and random nature is dismissed because A) it isn't rational to the known, and b) it can't be reproduced. Even worse some people will dismiss an entire culture of information based on observations from a specific portion of that culture as if the segment alone is cause to dismiss all.

[micasaverde]

I'm a skeptic, but I'm keeping an open mind to the fact that perhaps science has not yet discovered ALL the ways to measure things. Isn't everything evolving, including science itself?

[officernarc]

@photopicker i hate to tell you, man, but that IS science. people seem to have this weird concept of what science is. it's just a method. nothing more, nothing less. science isn't all large hadron colliders and launching telescopes into space. it's turning rocks over to see what's underneath and lighting things on fire just to see what happens when they burn. just think: science didn't begin with electron microscopes. it began with just looking at things.

[photopicker]

@officernarc Science is not the only way we have of interpreting our universe it is a practice of deep study of the universe with extended measurement tools beyond the human senses. Mankind has been interpreting the universe for quite some time and truths have surfaced without scientific means any more sophisticated than turning a rock over. Noting the seasons. Sailing beyond the horizon. Discovering oil. We have nothing more than our ability to reverse engineer our existence.

[gabbergandalf667]

@allthingsarelikethis

That's a whole different story - I won't deny that many scientists may fear researching fringe areas of their subjects due to fear of not getting funded. What I was countering was the myth that scientists usually only have their personal gain in mind, which is, when looking at wages of scientists in academia, and the life standards of junior scientists, a ridiculous claim. ;)

[Melkhor91230]

methan is one of the most important cause of destruction of the ozon....the most powerfull productors of this gas are....COWS.....yes....could you proof that is a false??.....loool....what a big science journalist you are.....ahhaahhahaahhaaha.....­the annual production of those animals al over the world kill much more the ozon than the CO2 or others gas....think poeple and analyze informations differently....

[ionz75]

This guy is coming to speak at my puny college this month, so excited!