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Claims that the "the science isn't settled" with regard to climate change are symptomatic of a large body of ignorance about how science works.
The first thing to understand is that there is no one method in science, no one way of doing things. This is intimately connected with how we reason in general.
[...] Those who demand the science be "settled" before we take action are seeking deductive certainty where we are working inductively. And there are other sources of confusion.
One is that simple statements about cause and effect are rare since nature is complex. For example, a theory might predict that X will cause Y, but that Y will be mitigated by the presence of Z and not occur at all if Q is above a critical level. To reduce this to the simple statement "X causes Y" is naive.
Another is that even though some broad ideas may be settled, the details remain a source of lively debate. For example, that evolution has occurred is certainly settled by any rational account. But some details of how natural selection operates are still being fleshed out.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @08:56PM
I try not to be cruel to people with birth defects and mental illness, including defects that are both at once. I don't however wish to participate in your mistaken idea of reality. That means I'm not cool with non-biological pronouns. If you can agree to disagree, we can be friends. Try shoving your ideas down my throat though, and I'll seethe with rage.
Compare:
Suppose a person thinks that doorknobs are talking to him. I'm going to deny that. I'm not going to kick the poor fellow's ass, but I'm not participating and I'll try to resist making fun of him. I'm not going to say that the doorknobs talk to me too. I'm not going to accept doorknob conversation as the new normal.
Suppose a person thinks about killing himself. I'm not going to offer to help. I'm not going to join in. I'm very unlikely to support the decision, maybe excepting stuff like terminal bone cancer. Somebody's twisted and broken vision of reality is defective, and I'm just not going to encourage or acknowledge that.
The same goes for the mentally retarded, the crippled, the homos... You go ahead and be you, but don't you dare demand that I pretend that things are normal.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday September 17 2016, @06:17AM
Assuming it is a mental illness, what exactly do you thing the most effective treatment is?
Hint: it is not trying to convince them that they are delusional.