Identifying Truth or Fiction
First, people are attracted to pseudoscience-type claims because such claims are connected with authoritarian personality or in other words the pseudoscience claims are socially constructed and people have adopted beliefs which they believe that they are reliable. Note that people are interested with resemblance thinking and like making conclusion from testimonials and anecdotal evidence. When interpreting things and making claims, people do not go beyond the belief circle and the beliefs aids them in understanding things clearly rather than trying to interpret the real science (May, 2016). Other point is that pseudoscience-type claims are logical in that rather than struggling to understand the physical world, people rely on ideologies and cultural goals. On the same note, in making claims people are not interested with expansion of knowledge but rather they focus on justifying the belief through adhering to the norms of scientific research. In pseudoscience, people do not want to be connected with mainstream research, data and theory but rather they show interest in assumptions from everyday experience (Robbie, 2012).
Example of pseudoscience-type claim include; Trofin Lysenko’s genetic theory. He did an experimental research on environmentally acquired inheritance where he stated that for living bodies to develop, the qualitative features require different environmental conditions. He came up with the idea of growing crops in different seasons and that every plant requires a certain amount of heat. His discovery led to practical implication on winter-wheat seedlings and effects on agricultural productivity. This claim did not meet scientific methodology standards he did not adhere to the concepts of heredity and inheritance, his ideas did not demonstrate the mechanism of inheritance and his ideas were not related to genetics (May, 2016).
Other example is on ‘Scientific Creationist’ which states that creation is not only supported by scriptural authority but there are evidences from scientific research. The theory offers a literal interpretation which tends to show that the story of creation in biblical view is derived from the evolution theory and both supported by natural selection. However, this pseudoscience-type claim does not meet scientific methodology standard by failing to conduct scientific research to on laws of nature and does not show the connection between metaphysics and religion (Robbie, 2012).
This week discussion has changed my way of thinking in that first, I understand that Pseudoscience use self-serving assertion in emulating legitimate fields while science connects itself with the natural domain, adheres to the underlying principles and uses a systematized knowledge in evaluation answers to research questions. To become a critical thinker and to make effective claims, facts should come from reliable sources, there should be supportive evinced and personal beliefs should not make conclusion (Robbie, 2012). Given that pseudoscience creates a hypothesis and subjective validation, there should be valid evidence from reliable sources.
References
Robbie Rob. (2012). Baloney Detection Kit, (Dr. Michael Shermer). Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJmRbSX8Rqo&feature=youtu.be
May, A. (2016). Pseudoscience and science fiction. Cham: Springer.
