Tuesday, May 8, 2012

[HIST 2297] Science: What's It Up To?



Why are (some) people suspicious of science? Is it because they don't understand scientific findings? If so, would scientific literacy help make people less suspicious of science?

2 comments:

  1. Some people are suspicious of science because they are ignorant to it. They don’t understand the hypothesis and they way the scientists come up with their conclusions. I do believe some people question it because they don’t understand the findings. If one is unsure of how an answer is found they are unsure of the answer itself. If they had information that they understood then one would have no reason not to believe the findings. I do believe that scientific literacy would help people understand and be less suspicious of science as they would be able to test the hypothesis. In the article, “Scientific Literacy: How Do Americans Stack Up,” Miller states that it would be important to have the population wise in science because we need a more sophisticated work force, more scientifically literate consumers, and a scientifically literate electorate. For one to be more educated in science would mean they would be less ignorant in testing hypothesis. In the readings it showed an educated man such as Semmelweis’ encountered difficulties testing hypothesis. If a scientific educated man struggles the general public will struggle to test hypothesis if uneducated in the subject.

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  2. This video may have been one of the funniest videos I have seen this year. It’s pretty interesting that some people believe that science is something of evil and used to manipulate data and understandings. I believe that many people are suspicious of science because they have a very difficult time changing their perspectives on certain topics, or that they do not understand science well enough so they choose to remain with the idea that makes most sense to them. I have read articles about people question science even though all the data and findings are right in front of them. They are ignorant and unwillingly to understand new concepts. The idea that these people probably do not understand scientific findings its most likely due to the fact they have no idea what is going on and a lot of prior information is needed to make certain perspectives different but they do not have the background knowledge necessary to begin believing a new ideology. I truly believe that an increase in scientific literacy would make people less suspicious of science. When people understand a topic and have background information they are more supportive of new findings and may consider the possibility that what they previously believed or new findings may be more accurate. The alternative sign to such a large number of people being educated in science is that facts may become frequently changed because so many people are finding new discoveries. I guess this may be why some people refuse to change their minds regarding science because at that time, that is all the knowledge that can possibly be known.

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