Application Of Baloney Detector Kit To Differentiate Science From Pseudoscience
Science is the use of gathered up information while organizing it into relevant categories that explain different concepts on how the world works. Science is divided into many sections that represent different features in order to be able to properly use evidence to identify different characteristics collected by research. Pseudoscience represents the hold of beliefs, statements or practices that are not backed up by enough research or by proper scientific methods. Pseudoscience is usually an assumed standpoint of things that does not have enough information or guidance backing it up.
The main difference between science and pseudoscience is that while science is usually a well-thought-out process reached in a knowledgeable conclusion through research and evidences gathered, pseudoscience on the other hand is an assumed statement or belief, one that has not enough evidence backing it up effectively. Most of these patterns are usually superstitious meaning that they are not real. A good example of the two can be found in Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detector Kit, which holds ten questions that help differentiate a science from a pseudoscience. This example is on global warming. There are skeptics who tend to disagree with the statement that global warming does exist and then there is science pointing to the fact that global warming actually exists. This qualifies global warming as a science while the skepticism that it does not exist is considered a pseudoscience. This is reached by asking the first question in the Baloney Detector Kit which focuses on the source of the claim: this means research. If all research points towards one direction, then it’s a science. If it does not, then it’s a pseudoscience.
A claim counts as a science if someone else makes the same claim after testing it. The classic example of this is the claim made that fusion energy would be found in a jar or a desktop and that would be used to solve the energy crisis that the world experiences. Later experiments on this found it not to be true thus this was characterized as a pseudoscience. If the claims had checked out true and the same in both instances, then it would have qualified as a science.
There are pseudo-scientific claims that I still hold on to myself. This is because there are theories that I have learned to accept through association and have not taken the time to do diligent research on them to follow their scientific claims. I have accepted them without the proper evidence and have made them seem true while in reality they are not.
There are several ways in which the Baloney Detector Kit has affected my way of thinking. Now, unlike before, I take the time to ask questions upon theories presented to me. Instead of accepting them as they are, I perform my research and if they turn out to be aligned with the claims, I follow. If not, well I do not follow. Another manner in which my thinking has changed is that I do not brush off any idea as irrelevant: no matter how absurd it may sound. If its evidence checks out, then it means that it is science, if it does not then its pseudoscience.
