Author Archives: Fallacy Man

Science and the Public Part 3: A Scientific Consensus is Based on Evidence, not Peer Pressure and Adherence to Dogma

In this post, I am going to debunk an argument that is very commonly used by the anti-science movement. Namely, the argument that scientists merely go along with the accepted dogma of their field and either refuse to consider contrary … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , | Comments Off on Science and the Public Part 3: A Scientific Consensus is Based on Evidence, not Peer Pressure and Adherence to Dogma

Science and the Public Part 2: Scientific Results Are Facts, Not Conspiracies

As I explained in the first post of this series, there is widespread and unfounded disagreement between what scientists know to be true and what the general public chooses to believe. Many people choose to blindly reject the science behind … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged | 1 Comment

Science and the Public Part 1: Why You Shouldn’t Trust Blogs

An enormous disparity exists between what scientists know to be true, and what the general public chooses to believe. This disparity exists largely because of the internet, and it is perpetuated by those who readily read and disperse blogs and … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Basic Statistics Part 2: Correlation vs. Causation

Updated with additional sources on 16-June-16 It is fairly widely known that correlation does not inherently indicate causation. In fact, inappropriately asserting causation is a logical fallacy known simply as a correlation fallacy. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Basic Statistics Part 1: The Law of Large Numbers

Statistics are a fundamental and vital component of science, and a good grasp of statistics is absolutely essentially if you want to be able to understand scientific results. Nevertheless, the vast majority of people have little or no knowledge of … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , | Comments Off on Basic Statistics Part 1: The Law of Large Numbers