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student debates on pseudoscience



John Denker wrote:
Suppose a student comes up
with an intricate argument in favor of, say,
homeopathy.... Does he get high marks for skillful
argumentation, or low marks for not recognizing
how unscientific the argument is?
He gets low marks, of course.

Debating factual issues (as opposed to
policy issues) is just totally a Bad Idea.
You seem to have a very naive idea of the meaning of
the word "factual." I'm not proposing debating whether
the square root of 2 is irrational, or whether heavy
objects fall with the same acceleration as light
objects.

It disturbs me that you seem to have so little
confidence in the ability of science to stand
up to careful scrutiny. Astrology needs to be
protected from skeptical examination; astronomy
does not.

I'd like to thank the people who responded to my
requests for suggestions -- very helpful! This was
my first time back on-list after unsubscribing several
years ago due to exasperation with the hostile tone
set by a small minority of prima donnas. It's good
to see that there is still a majority of nice,
helpful people on the list, but I'll be unsubscribing
again now.

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