{"id":1774,"date":"2012-12-06T21:47:41","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T01:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1774"},"modified":"2012-12-06T21:51:04","modified_gmt":"2012-12-07T01:51:04","slug":"what-is-and-isnt-a-scientific-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1774","title":{"rendered":"What is and isn’t a scientific debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing that seems to crop up regularly in both bad science journalism and in pseudoscience and non-science is the idea of a scientific debate.The implication in each case is that there is a genuine split in the scientific community over the relevant issue, and that perhaps one might go to a conference and see a room full of researchers split down the middle with a good number on each side of the divide advocating their position<\/p>\n

The truth however, is near inevitably that there is only a very small minority making a disproportionate noise about their case. Such is the case with topics such as\u00c2\u00a0evolution, the age of the earth\u00c2\u00a0or that HIV leads to AIDS, or that climate is changing. Yet the bottom line is. One or two people arguing a point (and often doing so primarily in the media) does not make a debate.\u00c2\u00a0Read the rest of this article<\/a> which highlights why the media need to understand the difference between a genuine scientific debate and the fact that a very vocal minority can disagree with an overwhelming consensus of evidence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing that seems to crop up regularly in both bad science journalism and in pseudoscience and non-science is the idea of a scientific debate.The implication in each case is that there is a genuine split in the scientific community … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-sC","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=68","url_meta":{"origin":1774,"position":0},"title":"Our response to the letters to the editor","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been waiting to post here on our blog our answers to the previous letters to the editor talked about here. However, we learned that the newspaper chose not to publish our letter. On the positive side, they did publish Dr. Scott's letter. I realize our letter is long, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":566,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=566","url_meta":{"origin":1774,"position":1},"title":"Release: Response to today’s vote","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following was sent out to the media today: Response to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House vote passing the deceptively named \u00e2\u20ac\u0153academic freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bill. April 28, 2008 Contact: Brandon Haught, Florida Citizens for Science bhaught@flascience.org \/ www.flascience.org \/ (Media Page available) Rep. D. Alan Hays wants to know what people are afraid of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=502","url_meta":{"origin":1774,"position":2},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My apologies for this quick news link dump. The chemistry class I'm taking now is kicking my butt. I hope to have some thoughts on the movie situation up here tonight. In the meantime: Herald Tribune. I'm not buying what Mr. Luskin is selling. Stein and John Stemberger, president of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Creationism Bills"","block_context":{"text":"Creationism Bills","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":153,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=153","url_meta":{"origin":1774,"position":3},"title":"Essay: Battle for Evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of Darwin Day, I'm posting here an essay I recently did for a college class.\u00c2\u00a0I'm happy because just last week I got the grade back on it, and it was real good! Enjoy.\u00c2\u00a0 The Battle for Evolution in Public Schools Scientists today and throughout history are no strangers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "beekay's college"","block_context":{"text":"beekay's college","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":443,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=443","url_meta":{"origin":1774,"position":4},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The St. Petersburg Times has an editorial up supporting evolution in the state science standards. On Tuesday, the state Board of Education will vote on new science standards that finally insist that Florida's students receive comprehensive biology instruction that includes evolution as its underlying concept. It is an economic imperative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1254,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1254","url_meta":{"origin":1774,"position":5},"title":"Evolution targeted in newspaper commentary","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know who Paul James is, but he wrote a newspaper commentary for the Palm Beach Post about evolution. Judging from the title \"Evolution doesn't answer all of science's questions\", it is already evident that the writer isn't the most knowledgeable person in matters of science. Of course, James\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1254#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}