Scepticism towards science

[Melt]

Why isn't there any?

Why are is it so easy for people to just accept ANYTHING that starts with "scientist have herpaderped that 75% herpaderp" while every time the word "God" is mentioned it's unreasonable? Hell, they will even quote WIKIPEDIA and feel confident about that.

This came up again after I saw the stupid ending of Bioshock: Infinite. Instead of making something reasonable out of it, they go the good old "multidimension-timetravel" nonsense route. And people seem to love it?! How can people seriously believe in timetravel nonsense and infinite dimensions, but when they hear somebody mention Alaa or God or any other religion they instantly go "nope, can't be".

I love scepticism and I love that people don't blindly follow into religion, but why do they follow blindly into WIKIPEDIA and "scientists have proven...". Isn't this exactly the same thing? Someone else telling you how things are, even though you don't know it yourself?


Sorry for my fury, it's just this entire timetravel nonsense... Everytime I see this mentioned and somebody responding with "timeparadoxon" I get this huge urge to eradicate the entire planet from all...

[Skrototem]

You do realise that religion is based on a story being told, where as most Science is based on strict and thorough testing to prove what is being hypothesised is true.

Multidimensional time travel isn't science, it's a fictional take on quantum mechanics. People love it because it allows the story to be potentially unlimited, because it implies there being infinite universes.

Believe it or not "Scientists have proven...." generally means Scientists have taken steps to ensure this is the case, and the scientific community is always testing itself, attempting to prove these theory's wrong beyond all doubt.

[Reeve]

Science is tested to death. Scientists themselves are often skeptical, knowing that science gets better and older discoveries are often disproven.

The difference between science and religion is that scientists celebrate when one of their theories is proven wrong. If you can disprove General Relativity, you're likely to get a Nobel Prize. Religion, on the other hand, resists any attempt to show it to be wrong.

[Adam Jensen]

Because skepticism is a big part of science. Scientists discover something, they provide evidence. Other scientists are skeptical so they review the first scientists findings. This is called peer review and science is built upon it. This ensures that every theory ever developed, every discovery ever made is backed up with evidence and lacks bias and subjectivity. So when credible scientists make claims, they make these claims with hard evidence and facts. Or they aren't credible.

Anything with "god" is scientifically invalid because god cannot be validated through any scientific means. God is a belief, not an objective fact that can be proven to exist. Therefore god cannot be a part of science.

Wikipedia can be a reliable source, wikipedia has citations and if you doubt wikipedia itself, then feel free to doublecheck the citations at the bottom of the page. The only issue with wikipedia is ensuring that whatever you quote from wikipedia is cited.

As to the ending of BSI, why the hell do you think anyone actually believes that sort of nonsense in the real world? It was a fantastical ending for a fantasy game. Yes, it touched upon quantum mechanics and the idea of the multiverse but as it was portrayed in the game is not what scientists believe in the real world.

I'm not even sure if the multiverse is an actual theory or just speculation.

---------- Post added 2013-04-05 at 05:51 PM ----------

Science is tested to death. Scientists themselves are often skeptical, knowing that science gets better and older discoveries are often disproven.

The difference between science and religion is that scientists celebrate when one of their theories is proven wrong. If you can disprove General Relativity, you're likely to get a Nobel Prize.

Indeed, one of the first thing I learned in high school physics was that scientists never set out to prove something, they always set out to disprove.

[Spectral]

Why isn't there any?

There's massive amounts of skepticism towards science, mostly from other scientists.

Why are is it so easy for people to just accept ANYTHING that starts with "scientist have herpaderped that 75% herpaderp" while every time the word "God" is mentioned it's unreasonable?

Well, yes, one is peer reviewed work that's based on physical data obtained and then scrutinized by others. The other is immaterial, if real at all.

This came up again after I saw the stupid ending of Bioshock: Infinite. Instead of making something reasonable out of it, they go the good old "multidimension-timetravel" nonsense route. And people seem to love it?! How can people seriously believe in timetravel nonsense and infinite dimensions, but when they hear somebody mention Alaa or God or any other religion they instantly go "nope, can't be".

It's a plot device, not science. This got you wound up? That's lame.

[Melt]

You do realise that religion is based on a story being told, where as most Science is based on strict and thorough testing to prove what is being hypothesised is true.

Multidimensional time travel isn't science, it's a fictional take on quantum mechanics. People love it because it allows the story to be potentially unlimited, because it implies there being infinite universes.

Believe it or not "Scientists have proven...." generally means Scientists have taken steps to ensure this is the case, and the scientific community is always testing itself, attempting to prove these theory's wrong beyond all doubt.

Scientists have contradicted themselves so often, it could be said it's irrational to believe them. And this isn't even the main problem. The problem is if people see a graph made university "herpaderp" and they don't ask "Are these sources even reliable? Is this even true?", but they blindly accept it as a wikipedia fact and make conclusions out of it.

The whole timetravel nonsense just shows how easy it is to stop people from doubting and sympathising with stupid concepts by simply calling them "SCIENCE FICTION". If people would call it "Bible fiction" everybody would start shouting at how irrational it is.

[Deleted]

I saw "Ending" and "BioShock Infinite" in your post, I point blank refuse to read any further. I will tell you this however; Science is constantly questioned, theories we thought were complete truths are recently being turned on their heads as wrong.

Edit:

If people would call it "Bible fiction"

Oh trust me, I do this a lot to poke fun at my friend.

[Iso]

I think you're taking Infinite abit too serious. Just because someone likes something in a game dosen't mean they belive it's fact/true/possible...
Personally I loved the ending, but that dosen't mean I'm convinced there's an infinite number of multi-dimensions etc etc etc.

Alot of people seem to forget that science is about finding out tuths and facts. It's not about comming up with a random idea, then do everything you can to prove it right. If you can't prove and continously predict the outcome of a theory, it's a bad theory.

Go go, read up on some string theory

[Reeve]

I am a bit annoyed you come on this gaming forum and tell everyone about the ending to Bioshock Infinite in a topic seemingly unrelated without any kind of spoiler alert.

[Melt]

Science is tested to death. Scientists themselves are often skeptical, knowing that science gets better and older discoveries are often disproven.

The difference between science and religion is that scientists celebrate when one of their theories is proven wrong. If you can disprove General Relativity, you're likely to get a Nobel Prize. Religion, on the other hand, resists any attempt to show it to be wrong.

Priests are at least just as sceptical towards other religions as scientists are towards other theories.

But I'm talking about the average Joe, the guy that doesn't understand/does not care enough to understand gravity and all this stuff. Why is the average Joe not sceptical?

[Spectral]

Scientists have contradicted themselves so often, it could be said it's irrational to believe them.

Don't then. Just make sure you're not a fucking hypocrite. Make sure you maintain the same cynicism if you ever get cancer.

[Masark]

The whole timetravel nonsense just shows how easy it is to stop people from doubting and sympathising with stupid concepts by simply calling them "SCIENCE FICTION". If people would call it "Bible fiction" everybody would start shouting at how irrational it is.

As opposed to stopping people from doubting stupid concepts like short people being capable of making balls of fire (containing no combusting material) appear out of nothingness and throwing them at enemies to damage them (and not cause burns or other literal injury, but reduce a "health" number) by calling it "fantasy".

[Spectral]

Priests are at least just as sceptical towards other religions as scientists are towards other theories.

I have a hard time believing you're serious. There's no one this obtuse. Is there?

[volkanik]

Why are is it so easy for people to just accept ANYTHING that starts with "religious prophets have herpaderped that 75% herpaderp" while every time the word "Science" is mentioned it's unreasonable? Hell, they will even quote the BIBLE OR ANY OTHER RELIGIOUS TEXT and feel confident about that.

This came up again after I saw the stupid endings of Little Nicky & Evan Almighty. Instead of making something reasonable out of it, they go the good old "heaven & hell" nonsense route. And people seem to love it?! How can people seriously believe in heaven and hell nonsense, but when they hear somebody mention the Big Bang Theory or any other scientific theory they instantly go "nope, can't be".

I love scepticism and I love that people don't blindly follow into science, but why do they follow blindly into the BIBLE OR ANY OTHER RELIGIOUS TEXT and "religious figures have said...". Isn't this exactly the same thing? Someone else telling you how things are, even though you don't know it yourself?


Sorry for my fury, it's just this entire heaven and hell nonsense... Everytime I see this mentioned and somebody responding with "life after death" I get this huge urge to eradicate the entire planet from all...

[Shadowmeld]

Yeah, this needs some sort of bioshock spoiler in it please. I stopped reading as well, but this crap is lame. Come on OP, you should know better.

[Adam Jensen]

Scientists have contradicted themselves so often, it could be said it's irrational to believe them. And this isn't even the main problem. The problem is if people see a graph made university "herpaderp" and they don't ask "Are these sources even reliable? Is this even true?", but they blindly accept it as a wikipedia fact and make conclusions out of it.

The whole timetravel nonsense just shows how easy it is to stop people from doubting and sympathising with stupid concepts by simply calling them "SCIENCE FICTION". If people would call it "Bible fiction" everybody would start shouting at how irrational it is.

When scientists contradict each other than either one discovered that another theory is wrong or there are two scientists with competing views on a theory and not enough evidence to solve the issue.

"Science fiction" is . . . fiction. It is loosely based on scientific theories but it is, in the end, fiction. BSI is loosely based on quantum mechanics but it is, in the end, fiction and not an accurate portrayal of quantum mechanics, nor does it try to be. People who want accurate portrayals of quantum mechanics or any other theory pick up textbooks, not video games.

[mittacc]

Priests are at least just as sceptical towards other religions as scientists are towards other theories.

But I'm talking about the average Joe, the guy that doesn't understand/does not care enough to understand gravity and all this stuff. Why is the average Joe not sceptical?

Because the average Joes are average Joes? Humans aren't as smart in general as you may think :P

[Mithfin]

Sorry for my fury, it's just this entire timetravel nonsense... Everytime I see this mentioned and somebody responding with "timeparadoxon" I get this huge urge to eradicate the entire planet from all...

Pray about it. That is what you people do.

[Melt]

I think you're taking Infinite abit too serious. Just because someone likes something in a game dosen't mean they belive it's fact/true/possible...
Personally I loved the ending, but that dosen't mean I'm convinced there's an infinite number of multi-dimensions etc etc etc.

Alot of people seem to forget that science is about finding out tuths and facts. It's not about comming up with a random idea, then do everything you can to prove it right. If you can't prove and continously predict the outcome of a theory, it's a bad theory.

Go go, read up on some string theory

You mean search wikipedia for "string theory"? No, no thanks ^^

It's not just Bioshock. So many good movies and games have been destroyed by this stupid stupid premise. It would have been more pleasing and realistic to me if they simply let God appear and solve all the problems...

[Deleted]

I literally just registered for the first time after reading this site for what must be going on 6 years right now, just to share with you the magnitude of unbelief I just felt reading your post. You are quite literally the worst. I sincerely hope you're still young, and still learning, because by god, you need it.