h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The quote says it all. Thanks to the X-Files to setting us straight in our beliefs, huh? I love the X-Files, but sometimes I wonder how many paranoid schizophrenics watch that show and believe it.

This article just gets me to thinkin'... Lemme grab my soapbox.

Too many people set aside the scientific method when they want to prove something. And that's just it, they want to prove something, not answer a question. People want to believe in something so bad they will manufacture the 'evidence' to get other people to believe it too. When they get enough followers they somehow think they have verified it and it is now fact.

More and more schools are dropping the scientific method from their curriculum because it takes too long to teach or is supposedly outdated. Then we wonder why our auto mechanics can't diagnose. Well gee, maybe they're taking a stab in the dark at fixing the car instead of using a scientific process to troubleshoot the problem. Why don't some people believe cigarette smoke is harmful? Maybe because they don't know enough about the scientific method to understand the tests that have proven so, and they want to believe they can live forever puffing away.

It should be a cause for concern that a way of thinking is being subverted by the glitzy media presentations of unscientific misinformation. Logic and reason are being outplayed by the pregnant pause, the significant glance, and the strategic commercial break. Knowledge of the cosmos, the hard information that should form the basis of everyone's view of life, the universe, and everything, is being buried under a mountain of fantasy and nonsense.

JTG

Well said...

I suggest concerned parties visit http://www.csicop.org - the Commitee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. A good place to find some sanity...

Hello. I'm not trying to be rude, so please forgive me if I sound so. First, I must say that I don't know the general state of education in other English-speaking countries, and I am making a rather large assumption that you are from the U.S. If you are not, please disregard this entire message.

I am replying to your comment about the scientific method not being taught in the schools anymore. Here's my question: Are you an expert? Are you a science teacher who isn't doing your job? Or rather, are you simply an outsider who is sick and tired of dealing with stupid people and so you simply have decided to blame the whole insidious problem of stupidity on bad teachers?

I AM a teacher in a public American school. As far as I know, all the teachers HERE teach the scientific method. In fact, it was the same case in the last three schools I taught in.

If you want somebody to blame for stupid people, look to those who make assertions without proof. It seems to be in vogue to make a large claim without backing it up. Using SCIENTIFIC METHODS in answering this question of "Why does it seem few understand or use scientific methods?" would not assume that all teachers are at fault without first collecting evidence from socioeconomic factors, teacher evaluations, student evaluations, etc., and should also include the possibility that it could be simply the people you choose to associate with, or that scientific methods perhaps aren't "trendy" anymore, or perhaps the extreme push to lower American standards via proficiency testing.

As for the scientific method being taught, at least in the public schools I attended and continue to teach in, I certainly see the people around me teaching it in EVERY class, including in music and art. Discovery through logical means of exploring and collecting evidence is not just for science.

Hmm.

I certainly wouldn't blame teachers.

It is, however, pretty clear that the majority of people either don't know about or don't care about the use of proper scientific method.

Saying 'they should teach it in schools' is something of a plea for help, and one unlikely to work...

People just aren't like that.

If they were, it would probably take a lot longer to get anything done ... so maybe it isn't such a bad thing.

(I'm from the UK, incidentally -- and I'm intruiged about your experiences teaching. Do you think it actually has a lasting effects on the students? Do they approach problems from a scientific standpoint where applicable?)

(incidentally, as far as I can tell the majority on h2g2 are from the UK... so your assumption's chances probably aren't too good )

Sorry! But, in the U.S., we DO teach the scientific method. That doesn't mean that we don't have a giant share of the world's fools, it just means that they blather on about things in a pseudo-scientific way, because they are too lazy to actually get up off their bottoms and do some research.

Hmmm...I hope I'm not one of those...

Come visit me! You're the only person I've had any real discussions with in the last 3 days! My personal space title is something like: Supply your own greeting here...

I keep finding rooms that haven't been visited for 2 years, and I'm pretty bored.

ehh, so I'm new here... *blush*

Hehe... I was new once... a long time ago!... well. Seems like that, anyway.

I would drop by your space but I'm terribly busy at the moment. When I say busy, I mean I have to get going or I won't get any dinner...

I think that the question needs to be reframed just a bit. The "SCIENTIFIC METHOD"(capitalized and up on a pedestal) is a formalized methodology used to acertain reality. Simple enough to be clearly expressed in a single paragraph, kids should memorize it about the same time as the alphabet(my opinion). Unfortunatly, beyond the simplest things, prior knowledge(or art, if you will) is required. This is where laziness comes into play. It boggles my mind sometimes to see the vast incuriosity that a lot of people have. Not everyone can or wants to be a perfect model of a modern Major General, having a clue is nice.

This is going to be contraversial.

"I am making a rather large assumption that you are from the U.S"

I know you adnmit thaty it is a large assumption but I see no reason to make that assumption at all. This may be a generaslisation but it seems to me that all Americans assume they are the centre of the world. Look at the address of the site. BBC. British Broadcasting Corporation. As has been said by 26199 the majority of h2g2 are from the UK.

Also, while I am on the subject, the US is a big place. While the scientific method may be well taught in the schools you know of science as a whole is not. Many states ban the teaching of evolution, the founding principles for much of modern biology. How are people meant to work properly if the truth is withheld.

I am making a statement, and apologise if I seem to be being rude to you, as I am not. I know that none if this is your fault. I have no objection against any American, it is just that as a nation the people from the United States seem both arrogant and stupid.

First off, I'm a student, and I'm not from the US or the UK, so it seems I'm coming from an entirely different perspective than some of you. My experience, limited though it may be, is that the scientific od is taught in many schools. Part of the problem is how it is taught. When it comes to the scientific od (or many other, similar lessons) the teacher has taught it to five other classes that day, and has taught it for at least ten years previously. The teacher wants to get it over with so the class can move onto other, more "important" stuff. The students, because they learn it (at least in my school system) three years in a row, slightly differently each time and each time by a teacher who lacks enthusiasm for the subject, are either bored and don't bother to listen (and therefore they don't learn), or they get terribly confused by what the scientific od is and give up on the entire thing (and therefore anything they learned is rendered useless). It isn't the teacher's fault that he/she has taught this over and over ad nauseum and can't seem to get the students to understand. And I don't think it's the students' fault that they can't comprehend. It's either something in the system, or it's the od itself. I hope that didn't sound too much like a rant. Oh well.

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I am very sorry about my last post on here. I was fairly tired and grouchy at the time.

Are you sure you are not from the UK? Sounds just like my science classes circa 1982!

ooh ooh! G Bush I & II
Quite an impressive list of fools I must say!

Sorry, couldn't resist having a little pop!