Milt Rosenberg on WGN-AM in Chicago is one of those programs that are way above typical radio. Milt is a University Professor – his topics can sometimes be a bit esoteric and his references a bit obscure if you don’t have a PhD, but that’s how you learn new things.
Milt’s guest this evening (Daniel Simons) is the co-author of a book “The Invisible Gorilla”, about how we convince ourselves that we were involved in things that didn’t happen, and know things we don’t understand.
At one point, they wandered into the scientific method and how it is misused by many scientists. The idea of the scientific method is to disprove the hypothesis, and remove all other possible explanations. A scientist does NOT try to prove their hypothesis is correct – they (and their peers) try to disprove it. At the point that there is no remaining explanation other than the hypothesis, then you conclude the hyopthesis is probably true.
This is exactly the problem with “Global Warming” – they started with the premise that man made CO2 has caused global warming and then gathered evidence to prove the hypothesis (and hide or filter data that would have disproved the hypothesis).
Al Gore’s notion that the “debate is over” is completely contrary to the scientific method – but Al Gore has no training in science. He quit divinity school, and then flunked out of law school That’s his education. He’s the ultimate “useful idiot”. UnforTUnately, many of those who do earn their livelihood pervert the scientific method to put food on their table.
I have been trying ardently to bring this very point to light among the intelligentsia among my friends who seem determined to fall for every line, jot and tittle dribbled by the Goreian mouth or pen. In fact, hypotheses are stated in the negative (null hypotheses) for the very purpose of shielding researches from “proving” their ideas instead of testing them with intelligent statistical designs, observations and data gathering. Advocacy never is science. Right or wrong, advocacy is a form moralizing.