Aliens, Atlantis, and the Psudosciences Questions And Answers

What is archaeology? - A method to study past human activity by studying things people made and used. According to Kida, what are the six mistakes we make in our thought processes? - - we prefer stories to statistics - we seek to confirm - we rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence - we can misperceive the world - we oversimlify - we have faulty memories What is pseudoscience? - A claim, belief or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not follow the scientific method A theory is an hypothesis that has withstood repeated testing t/f - true Characteristics of pseudoscientific procedure include - - Outrageous and often controversial claims - Search for evidence to prove [not test] belief - Selective presentation of data [cherry-pick] - Vague definitions - Superficial comparisons or not logical argument - Argument based on unfounded assumptions - Disregard for alternative explanations [conspiracy to suppress dissenting views] - Expectation of "rewriting history" and/or imminent change Because universal laws do not change under ordinary circumstances (they are immutable), scientists can make predictions about what will happen in the future. t/f - T