Science Myth Debunking: General Discussion

I'm here to argue that debunking science myths is an increasingly important skill for every person to have. We are constantly bombarded by false claims made by the media, corporations, front groups, political action committees, elected officials, and other institutions. This can cause huge public misunderstanding on important issues, not just climate change, but also the teaching of evolution in schools, vaccines, tobacco use, and so forth. I really wish I could spend more time debunking myths on the internet, because there are so many and it's a valuable educational opportunity. So since I can't be on every news article addressing every commenter, I will go ahead and give you some of the tools I use to debunk common myths. But first, I really want to spell out to you what the difference between psuedoscience and science is, and this article does a great job of that:

Distinguishing Science and Pseudoscience

I think this notion at the end is especially important:

Pseudoscience often strikes educated, rational people as too nonsensical and preposterous to be dangerous and as a source of amusement rather than fear. Unfortunately, this is not a wise attitude. Pseudoscience can be extremely dangerous.

• Penetrating political systems, it justifies atrocities in the name of racial purity
• Penetrating the educational system, it can drive out science and sensibility;
• In the field of health, it dooms thousands to unnecessary death or suffering
• Penetrating religion, it generates fanaticism, intolerance, and holy war
• Penetrating the communications media, it can make it difficult for voters to obtain factual information on important public issues.

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I think that really says it best. Psuedoscience and science myths, and generally ignorance can cause real death. How many people have died because of mistrust from vaccines? How many people have died because they thought HIV wasn't dangerous? How many children will needlessly suffer because the Taliban sees anti-polio campaigns as a Western conspiracy? (Yes, polio is still around in some countries).

Martin Rees - Science is Key to Earth's Future
Science Is Key to Earth's Future, Says Astrophysicist Martin Rees | LiveScience

Scientific American - Anti-science beliefs jeopardize U.S. Democracy
Antiscience Beliefs Jeopardize U.S. Democracy: Scientific American


Of course, there is the biggest one of them all, climate change. However I think the climate change thread has plenty of good content, and I want this to be more of a general science discussion.

I want to start off by saying, that if you are even remotely interested in science, then your first stop would be watching Cosmos. It's an amazing series, available on Netflix. I think watching it changed my life. I know what you're thinking: It's from 1980 and the science has certainly been updated since then. It has, but it's a brilliant narrative. Carl Sagan really makes the universe come home for all of us.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now, I want to go ahead and give you some material that addresses any "young earth/young universe" myths. We definitely know that the Earth is billions of years old, and that the Universe is billions of years older than that. We know that evolution is true, Here is the "Our Origins Made Easy" from Peter Hadfield:

History of the Universe Made Easy
1 -- History of the Universe Made Easy (Part 1) - YouTube
2 -- History of the Universe Made Easy (Part 2) - YouTube

Origin of Life Made Easy
3 - The Origin of Life Made Easy - YouTube

The Story of Earth Made Easy
4 -- The Story of the Earth Made Easy - YouTube

Age of Our World Made Easy
5 -- The Age of Our World Made Easy - YouTube

Natural Selection Made Easy
6 -- Natural Selection Made Easy - YouTube

Theory of Evolution Made Easy
7 -- The Theory of Evolution Made Easy - YouTube

Human Evolution Made Easy
8 -- Human Evolution Made Easy - YouTube

Human Ancestry Made Easy
9 - Human Ancestry Made Easy - YouTube

Scientific Method Made Easy
10 - The Scientific Method Made Easy - YouTube

Creation "Science" Made Easy
11 -- Creation Made Easy - YouTube

Here is a great video by Jerry Coyne that describes evolution in more detail:

Why Evolution is True - Jerry Coyne
Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, AAI 2009 - YouTube

Here is a video that is more fun/entertaining, it's a 30+ video series and I won't link to them all. But the series is excellent at smashing common Creationist myths:
Why do people laugh at creationists? (part 1) - YouTube

Here is a link to RationalWiki. An invaluable resource for myth debunking:
RationalWiki

Rational Wiki's Comparative Guide to Science Denial
A comparative guide to science denial - RationalWiki

HIV denial
HIV denial - RationalWiki

Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial - RationalWiki

Germ Theory denial
Germ theory denialism - RationalWiki

The dangers of science denial
Michael Specter: The danger of science denial | Video on TED.com

The science of why we don't believe in science
The Science of Why We Dont Believe Science | Mother Jones

50 science myths debunked in 8 mins
50 Science Misconceptions - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep.18) - YouTube

Common Conspiracy Theories debunked
Conspiracy theories conspiracy - YouTube

Conservation 3.0
Beyond Parks, Conservation Must Blend With Daily Life | Nature Preservation | LiveScience

I'll probably make some edits and changes later on. However I do want to get a conversation started and get people thinking. Science has probably never been more important than today, in an age when technology can literally change the climate of the planet. We're sharing a world with 7 billion others (a population that continues to accelerate), and I'm afraid it could be a dangerous one if we don't solve some big problems soon. We live in an age where we have people actively trying to make the problems worse, denying the existence of the problems, and are backed by powerful companies/institutions/media outlets. So I think it is time to reverse the momentum of the science denial phenomenon. I know for a fact that I have good material somewhere that I'm forgetting, so I will probably come back and add more. For now, feel free to post anything that you think help debunks science myths.

SwedishAdvocate said:

Since I consider myself to be an atheist, and also since religion seems to be off-bounds on TMC I’ll stop here on that topic. (At least for now. In any case I’ll first ask permission from the moderator in charge.)

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Yes please, and thank you. Let's definitely avoid religious discussion here, even though some of links mention religion. Those kind of discussions always end up personal/emotional and feelings to be hurt. I'm not here to address any personal experiences. Science deals with verifiable, testable and falsifiable observations and experiments. Let's stick with the evidence and not worry about philosophy and faith.

Otherwise I agree with everything in your post.

Except for this part:

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While I agree that a child developing narcolepsy after a vaccination is horrific and sad, I don't want to jump straight into the correlation = causation trap. I suppose I have a few questions on that. How can we be certain that the vaccination is what caused the narcolepsy, whats the link? If so, Is it the virus itself that caused it, or something else injected with the vaccine? This seems like something worth deeper investigation, which it looks like they are doing. I personally don't have enough information here to form a judgement.

I went ahead and checked out the Wikipedia article the comic is talking about:

List of common misconceptions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I just did a quick skim through it, but it does look like a really good list.

Here is a cute little book, free and fun to read. I wish I could send this to a lot of people on the other side, it would help them realize how bad their arguments are.

A Book of Bad Arguments
An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments

Ah, now I remember what I forgot. I completely forgot my favorite Big Think videos!

This is totally, absolutely worth 42 minutes of your time:
Michio Kaku: The Universe in a Nutshell - YouTube

And this is worth 6 mins of your time. Made me a big fan of Michio Kaku:
Michio Kaku: Will Mankind Destroy Itself? - YouTube

Bill Nye on Creationism, you've likely seen it before:
Bill Nye: Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children - YouTube

You may know Penn Jillette as an entertainer and magacian, but he's also a pretty smart guy:
Penn Jillette: Why Tolerance Is Condescending - YouTube

Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the Cosmic Perspective:
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Your Ego and the Cosmic Perspective | Big Think Mentor - YouTube

A great video by Lawrence Krauss that describes our place in the universe:
Lawrence Krauss: Our Godless Universe is Precious - YouTube

A very good point by Lawrence Krauss about common sense, a point that I've repeated many times:
Lawrence Krauss on Caveman Common Sense - YouTube

This isn't Big Think, but this is a really great video on Purpose in the Universe by Neil DeGrasse Tyson:
Does the Universe Have a Purpose? feat. Neil deGrasse Tyson - YouTube

Phil Plait gives his tips on debunking psuedoscientific BS:

How to detect pseudo-science B.S. - NBC News.com

A great article by Scientific America. They are on a roll.

10 Sublime Wonders of Science | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

A good article that addresses popular misconceptions on science:

: 7 Misused Science Words: Scientific American