Podcast Quantum Physics
Skepticism and critical thinking
Skepticism and critical thinking
What if you think that you know are mostly false? Are you ready to accept a paradigm change in knowledge?
Heard of nutritional supplements, detoxification, energy levels, healing today, and the phrase "boost your immune system? Well, I'm not surprised. All these methods of improvement health are as common as computers, but do you know the real business of these types of methods? Recently, I came across an interesting video on clearbits.net, which is an open license to share digital media files. I scroll through the content a week when a short film called "Here Be Dragons" caught my eye. In short, this is a film about the critical thinking, pseudoscience and skepticism all screens in a large video logic. Believe me, you will find many surprises in this video that make you go "Hey, I'm using this" or "Oh my God, I did not know, and definitely good to know." For the skeptics, Naturally, you may think this is a product of the bull (if you do not get this, read my second place of destination). If you have 40 minutes to spare, watch this movie Interestingly then, or take a while to see it.
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Here Be Dragons – a video by Brian Dunning critical thinking
What are your thoughts about the film?
Personally, I think "Here Be Dragons" is a film very informative and powerful whole. The host Brian Dunning goes straight to the point of how pop phenomena is actually making us believe things that have a sound scientific basis – things that are labeled as pseudoscience. All his arguments are based on logic and critical analysis. Thus, under this video, if something has no scientific proof, broken then it is a pseudoscience and a product of the bull.
But all these things true critical thinking can be, it is prudent not to take into account the knowledge secrets of the ancients. Yes, it is clear that ancient knowledge is archaic and obscure, and not fully understood by scientists of modern times until now, but tat is not ignorant to ignore the full knowledge of the past and think of them as useless, baseless human imagination?
Most issues addressed are really reasonable, but he is putting everything that is not fully understood by science in the "meaningless" category. And he is certainly careful not to imply anything that is religion related. If you've noticed, the only blow that the earth is Buddhism, and that's because he mentioned that knowledge must be sought and not pre-possessed by humans.
For critical applications thought to counter the arguments of the film, has no sense to deny something that is not known because of our limitation on the total understanding of the world or the universe. The areas of knowledge could have a scientific basis in the future, although it may sound totally non-intuitive now. If you are proven to work under the scientific method, that does not mean it does not work in reality because there are some aspects of these phenomena that are difficult to manipulate and control in the laboratory. In most cases, no specific equipment to measure what need to be measured too. An example of factors that can lead to possible inaccurate laboratory results is the effect of emotion.
As science can not answer all the questions in our minds, this is a process of learning more about what we do not know, like what Brian said. Science is a tool to discover and rediscover the evening of world knowledge, but only to some extent. There is always going to be that something still could not understand, but the next kingdom come. To find all it means that we have nothing to learn, and that lucky day will never come.
Who knows, in future, that certain "spread" might be extended, resulting in the release of the various branches of science that deals specifically with the supernatural or unexplained phenomena in the world today, very similar to how science has been divided into specialized fields like quantum physics and nanotechnology, in which some laws of physics actually break to mourn.
The ancients had undergone important ancient relics that we, the modern generation. And without that knowledge, especially math, science and biology, would not enjoy the prosperity we have today or breathing polluted air today, for that matter. Just take the Pythagorean Theorem, for example, consider the impact and development of this knowledge of the past have brought us. Could be the same for other past discoveries or assumed knowledge as "energy" and the like, although more time.
I think what this video really needs to convey is that makes us think critically on what is presented to us prior to accepting the facts, do some research as well as neutral, which is a good thing. Today, fraud cases are very common, another obvious. Not to mention that people today, no matter what profession is or how intelligent they are, the fall of advertising or information that are influential.
Moreover, I think this video is also trying to influence public opinion to support his idea of all things scientific, which is another good thing to spread. Since the main objective of the video, I think there is no need to go further and say the absurdity of Feng Shui and "energy" in fact, who knows why scientific potential that the future may have for them?
In short, I think this video enlightening despite a minor skepticism in some parts of the film. It is a revelation, no joke. However, like everything that comes from the web, we also have the film and its subtle and obvious messages with a pinch of salt.
For your information, the man behind the video is Brian Dunning, a computer scientist profession. Skeptoid.com is the creation of man himself. Also presented in the Skeptoid podcast and has a blog related to the topic.
For a better understanding on critical analysis of the phenomena of modern pop, please visit their website.
You can find many fun and useful things besides a lot of facts and truths about the world as we know it.
If you're skeptical enough?
About the Author
The author is a young guy living in Malaysia. He has a blog from which this article can be originally found. For more information, do visit his humble blog.
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