Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?

[gerryh]

You should stick to topics you know something about.

really, and which one of my statements that you quoted is incorrect and why.

 

[Cannuck]

really, and which one of my statements that you quoted is incorrect and why.

Stop being so silly.

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread eaters.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low occurrence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after only two days.
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

Nothing in the list is incorrect.

 

[petros]

You need to come down.

 

[mentalfloss]

95% of scientists work in private industry.

Who pays for science?

Today, we all do. Most scientific research is funded by government grants (e.g., from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, etc.), companies doing research and development, and non-profit foundations (e.g., the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, etc.). As a society, we reap the rewards from this science in the form of technological innovations and advanced knowledge, but we also help pay for it. You indirectly support science everyday through taxes you pay, products and services you purchase from companies, and donations you make to charities. Something as simple as buying a bottle of aspirin may help foot the bill for multiple sclerosis research.

Funding for science has changed with the times. Historically, science has been largely supported through private patronage (the backing of a prominent person or family), church sponsorship, or simply paying for the research yourself. Galileo's work in the 16th and 17th centuries, for example, was supported mainly by wealthy individuals, including the Pope.

Darwin's Beagle voyage in the 19th century was, on the other hand, funded by the British government — the vessel was testing clocks and drawing maps for the navy — and his family's private assets financed the rest of his scientific work. Today, researchers are likely to be funded by a mix of grants from various government agencies, institutions, and foundations. For example, a 2007 study of the movement of carbon in the ocean was funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Australian

Cooperative Research Centre, and the Australian Antarctic Division.1 Other research is funded by private companies — such as the pharmaceutical company that financed a recent study comparing different drugs administered after heart failure.2 Such corporate sponsorship is widespread in some fields. Almost 75% of U.S. clinical trials in medicine are paid for by private companies.3 And, of course, some researchers today still fund small-scale studies out of their own pockets. Most of us can't afford to do cyclotron research as a private hobby, but birdwatchers, scuba divers, rockhounds, and others can do real research on a limited budget.

Who pays for science?

 

[taxslave]

Too much sugar and yeast in the bread he is eating.
Our bread has none of the bad stuff.

 

[gerryh]

Stop being so silly.

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread eaters.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low occurrence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after only two days.
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

Nothing in the list is incorrect.

That's wonderful, So you are saying that your post was a troll and made incorrect assumptions about my knowledge.

 

[petros]

Who is disagreeing with you?

Then this is where the discussion ends then huh?

 

[gerryh]

I'd also like to see the "empirical" evidence to support your above claims.

 

[mentalfloss]

Too much sugar and yeast in the bread he is eating.
Our bread has none of the bad stuff.

Then this is where the discussion ends then huh?

It was already in the OP.

We’re asked to accept, for example, that it’s safe to eat food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because, the experts point out, there’s no evidence that it isn’t and no reason to believe that altering genes precisely in a lab is more dangerous than altering them wholesale through traditional breeding. But to some people the very idea of transferring genes between species conjures up mad scientists running amok—and so, two centuries after Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, they talk about Frankenfood.

 

[petros]

Oh oh mentalflaws feels cornered.

It was already in the OP.

We’re asked to accept, for example, that it’s safe to eat food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because, the experts point out, there’s no evidence that it isn’t and no reason to believe that altering genes precisely in a lab is more dangerous than altering them wholesale through traditional breeding. But to some people the very idea of transferring genes between species conjures up mad scientists running amok—and so, two centuries after Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, they talk about Frankenfood.

WTF is that?

 

[Cannuck]

That's wonderful, So you are saying that your post was a troll and made incorrect assumptions about my knowledge.

Of course not. I'm saying the knowledge you are sharing with us is completely and utterly irrelevant to the OP. I'm not surprised you are having difficulty understanding.

 

[mentalfloss]

Oh oh mentalflaws feels cornered.

WTF is that?

People not trusting people.

 

[gerryh]

WTF is that?

It's a lefty imploding. "Franken food" is a lefty invention. It's an example of how science lies. Oh, but wait, science can't lie, at least not when it comes to climate change/GW. Is that smoke I see coming from flossies ears?

 

[petros]

People not trusting people.

Scientists are people again?

Sloppy authoring BTW. Can you pick out the stupidity in what you just quoted?

 

[gerryh]

Of course not. I'm saying the knowledge you are sharing with us is completely and utterly irrelevant to the OP. I'm not surprised you are having difficulty understanding.

The OP used fluoridation as an example and made spurious claims as to what the fluoride used in water systems was. I corrected that improper statement. It was an example of how people were and are lied to.

 

[petros]

It's a lefty imploding. "Franken food" is a lefty invention. It's an example of how science lies. Oh, but wait, science can't lie, at least not when it comes to climate change/GW. Is that smoke I see coming from flossies ears?

Imploding happens when there is nothing but a vaccum between the ears.

 

[JLM]

Perhaps the question should be worded a little differently.................."Are the people doing the doubting, reasonable people"? (Reasonable people are able to reason)

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Based upon the converse of the OP title, I wonder why so many unreasonable people do not doubt science?

 

[JLM]

Stop being so silly.

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread eaters.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low occurrence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after only two days.
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

Nothing in the list is incorrect.

Having a slow day? Please be considerate of us pensioners paying your wages!

 

[Cannuck]

The OP used fluoridation as an example and made spurious claims as to what the fluoride used in water systems was. I corrected that improper statement. It was an example of how people were and are lied to.

You should stick to things you know something about