The Pros And Cons Of Pseudoscience

The word “Pseudo” in “pseudoscience” means “fake,” so it all comes down to where does one draw the line between real and fake? Webster Dictionary defines it as “a system of theories, assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific” Knowing .what science exactly is isn 't just knowing certain facts such as the process of cell division to balancing chemical equations. In fact, it is the act of understanding the nature of science itself, finding valid evidence, conducting thorough experiments, weighing out the possibilities and finally, testing the hypotheses. In the end this makes it possible to come to reliable, accurate, and meaningful conclusions regarding the world around us. Pseudosciences have numerous characteristics in common; they all display a level of ignorance towards factual evidence. Pseudoscience usually begins with just a hypothesis, one that appeals to the audience on some kind of level (whether it be emotionally or personally) and is seriously improbable. Next, the …show more content…
Harriette Hall, a retired family physician and U.S. Air Force flight surgeon who writes the SkepDoc column in Skeptic magazine, claims “Researcher bias tends to intrude because acupuncturists are the ones providing the therapy. Patients who don’t believe in acupuncture are not likely to volunteer for an acupuncture study; those who accept the possibility that acupuncture will work may be biased.” She also goes on to talk about how the very nature of acupuncture is reliant on placebo effect. However on the other hand there many undocumented stories about how it actually helps like Rockwell’s problem of always tasting salt was fixed by a needle here and another there. Personally speaking i do not feel i have enough evidence to come to the conclusion of if acupuncture is a science or pseudoscience. In the end it leaves the question of are unproved theories