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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[allthingsarelikethis]

@gabbergandalf667 Yes but in order to be recognized and granted these scientists must put things into the already established reality otherwise they don't get funded. Science just like any system has its politics and you either play by the rules or if you are a great scientist you push through and don't get recognized in your own life time but later when the culture catches up with your idea, which has happened a lot in the history of science.

[allthingsarelikethis]

@officernarc I am in no way saying that we should not use science to understand and navigate the physical nature of things. What I am saying is that we have become blase to just how crazy the things that science creates are and science is magic in every way if looked at from an outside modern times perspective. Science fails its awareness check in philosophy not in its mathmatics, by thinking that the things created by imagination are more real than the imagination itself.

[gabbergandalf667]

@GEERTSTHEBEST

Most scientists don't earn big money- for every tenured scientist here in Western Europe, there are about 10 scientists in temporary positions, many of them even having to share this position with a colleague- which works out to way below 2000 euros/month.

In my experience, and according to surveys, for most scientists, money is not a particular incentive - idealism and enthusiasm for their subject are.

[officernarc]

@allthingsarelikethis science isn't just about using "measurements to figure out the physical nature of things". those measurements are just a part of science. they do not make up the whole. science isn't A THING. science is just a method. it's as much the same thing as looking at 2+2 and realizing that adds up to 4. it's about using the tools we have at our disposal to determine the most logical conclusion about our universe.

i am genuinely curious, what would you suppose we use instead?

[allthingsarelikethis]

@officernarc I disagree, science is just using measurments to figure out the physical nature of things, it is is not the "ONLY" way to interpret the universe, this is just your cultural paradigm making sence to you the same way all paradigms make sense....to themselves.

[officernarc]

@allthingsarelikethis science is about making claims and then proving those claims with reliable, testable evidence. science may be imperfect, but it is the ONLY way we have of interpreting our universe.

[officernarc]

@dukof1 It's about remaining skeptical, not outright ignoring everything. science & skepticism aren't about ignoring evidence, it's about demanding to be shown proof of a claim. of course no science ever started out as a majority view. that's because people created a hypothesis and discovered evidence which supported it, or vice versa. it is because of the preponderance of evidence which we can determine which claims are factual or not.

[esiosan]

@GEERTSTHEBEST That's why there is peer review, and every scientific discovery or hypothesis is put to the test of time in addition to thousands other scientists working around the clock to falsify your work. That is why scientists with biases don't go very far.

[GEERTSTHEBEST]

Remember everyone has an in-built bias, even scientists, especially when they are thinking about their bank balances.

[GEERTSTHEBEST]

I just did respond to the video but it must have been on my own channel.