Opus 2021-309: Family Feud Science

Somewhere in the last ten years of my teaching marathon I started hearing a new phrase to explain all the nonsense the educational gurus were coming up with.  I think  the term I kept hearing was “experience based.”.  It seems like such a small thing.  It used to be our theories were “research based.”  They still like to say that “research shows” but they don’t mean research based on a rigorous application of the scientific method.  They mean a selective search for anecdotes that illustrate their desired result.  This change just another sign of the breakdown of our culture.

Experience based theories are based on personal experiences.  It is build on a foundation of anecdotes.  The researcher will spend time listening or doing internet searches looking for specific reports.  They will then claim that life experience has told them which way to go.  What really happens is the stories are carefully chosen to advance the agenda of the “researcher”.  Many of the new solutions are based on totally bogus data.  Take for instance the panic over plastic bags.  I remember when California started banning them and demanding reusable bags.  It didn’t matter that common sense as well as genuine scientific research had shown that reusable bags bring in a disease factor that crates significant problems in people’s health.  And my understanding, experience based of course, is that the entire panic was based on a paper some kid wrote with no facts to back it up.

Scientific research was based on the scientific method.  Note I said, “was”.  The scientific method is a careful testing of the known facts and your conclusions are based on data, not feelings.  When done properly it tests only one variable at a time and the results might be able to exclude that variable as the cause of a problem.  Assume your hypothesis was that men cannot get pregnant.  Current experience based decisions say that they say they can so it must be true.  If you did an internet search or recent experts you would find it is true.  The scientific method would do a study of males and females and determine how many males were getting pregnant without extreme medical procedures.  Current “research” is more based on the Family Feud Method, you know, “Survey says....”  It is based on the current opinions of a studio audience.

What is often overlooked is that the scientific method is based on a conviction that the universe is logical and consistent, a belief rooted in the Biblical concept of the immutable God.  The Greeks gave us logic and it is very helpful but the whimsical nature of their gods and the universe they presided over put severe limits on how useful that would be.  Following the Greek’s way of making decisions kept the world from progressing up until Christian theology began to invade the world of the intellectuals.  Because God is immutable the universe is not whimsical.  

Experience based is rooted in our senses and limited to our feelings.  It is a rejection of the God of the universe and says that all things are measured by man.  Be careful what you believe.  It may be a trap.

homo unius libri