Originally Posted by B. Carfree

I used to do scientific research for a living (actual, wet-lab biochemistry/cell biology/molecular biology), so this topic is somewhat near and dear to me. I retired early in disgust due to the corporatization of academic research that occurred...................................................................... .................................................................................................... .........................................................For those who claim that common sense is the answer to our problems, I am reminded of a Richard Feynman quote. He said something to the effect that common sense is nothing more than the sum total of our accumulated biases. Let's not forget that common sense would seem to dictate a flat Earth.

Originally Posted by qcpmsame

Link not working Akohekohe. Could you reload it please? Edit: did a copy and paste, worked for me then. Interesting article, seems to say you can use statistics to prove a study lied with statistics and the statistical methodology. Who would have thunk it?

Bill

Originally Posted by B. Carfree

I'm not sure which is the chicken and which is the egg, but our culture has turned its back on science and our academic scientific community has broken trust with our nation by allowing itself to be corrupted by private money. Of course, it is hard to resist the urge to do Monsanto's bidding when the federal government has dried up the public research funds source. Add in the scientific ignorance of the typical American and we are headed towards what happened to Islam in the 12th century. (For those non-history buffs, from the ninth century to the twelfth century the center of the scientific world was Baghdad. At that point, the leaders of the Muslim faith decided that science was a tool of the devil, much as many our our leaders, religious and otherwise, have seemingly decided, and the Middle East entered the Dark Ages, from which it has not yet emerged.)

For those who claim that common sense is the answer to our problems, I am reminded of a Richard Feynman quote. He said something to the effect that common sense is nothing more than the sum total of our accumulated biases. Let's not forget that common sense would seem to dictate a flat Earth.

Originally Posted by chasm54

This. A most excellent post. "Common sense" is usually bunk and often just a lazy acceptance of the superficial in preference to doing the work (and the thinking, which is harder) to figure out what is really going on.

The rejection of science by so many ignorant people, and especially so many ignorant and crowd-pleasing politicians, is little short of a disaster.