Battling Bad Science!

By Rich Kozlovich, Originally posted on Saturday, October 1, 2011

Over a lifetime of reading and pontificating about everything I have come to some very basic conclusions about ....everything. One of the conclusions I arrived at many years ago is that everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. Another conclusion that I came to is that everything is the basics. Those two kind of go hand in hand. If it is too complicated it probably isn't true, and must be looked at very carefully before being accepted. If it defies what we see in life it probably isn't true. And claims by scientists are very often so complicated that most of us, including other scientists, have trouble understanding them....and very often defy reality. I recommend reading Ecological Sanity by Claus and Bolander.

There is a term in science called Occam’s razor which says that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. Here is a discussion on Occam’s razor which explains the why’s and wherefore’s of this principle…which Occam probably didn’t even come up with himself and isn’t always correct. Some things need expansion in order to be understood. Having said that, we still have to understand that by complicating an issue, the issue can be twisted and warped into a conclusion that is preferred by those doing the complicating. Far too much of what are called scientific studies are in reality nothing more than conclusions in search of data.

When it's done by the greenies and their acolytes it usually ends up becoming policy. And that policy can have long term negative consequences with unpleasant penalties that will be paid for by society. Unfortunately the penalties are never paid for by the greenies and their acolytes....because they're "the good guys"! 

However, if some policy based on bad science may be pushed by a “for profit” company,  the activists, who would have been more than happy to use equally bad science to promote one of their pet causes, will scream and rant until they are brought to justice in the form of civil or criminal penalties, because they're "the bad guys"!

Let me make this clear as a bell. There are no good guys when science is twisted, contorted, misused or hidden in order to force a conclusion already arrived at long before the study is started and the results released. I don’t care on whose side they claim to be. They are liars and charlatans, and all of them need to be prosecuted for the consequences they have wrought, including the greenies and their acolytes. There are no good guys in bad science.

I want to thank Jeff Teague for sending this video to me called Ben Goldacre: Battling Bad Science. This is a very easy video to watch because it is quite humorous. Take the time. I will be linking it permanently on the Observations From the Back Row template.