In 1980(!!), when this class was first taught, people encountered pseudoscience mainly in paperback books found in racks near the checkout lines in department stores, grocery stores and drug stores, as well as at local bookstores, and in articles published in wide-circulation magazines. Today, in 2023, the main locations where pseudoscience is encountered are in posts on social media, on YouTube, Tik-Tok and Instagram videos, in podcasts, on web pages, etc., etc. No matter how impossibly weird someone's belief may be, there is almost certainly some internet presence somewhere, where the believer can find others who subscribe to precisely the same belief! As a result, even the craziest and most dangerous beliefs can easily go mainstream. In the past, pseudosciences have attached themselves protectively to various religious sects and even political parties, so that a member of the sect or party in good standing is almost required to claim belief in the dogmas of the pseudoscience.

This is basically a course in critical thinking, and at the beginning of the course we will emphasize the most effective way to think about and analyze "weird" claims about man and nature and our universe. It is important to understand that a major factor in the popularization of pseudoscience is not just lack of education, but (alas) actual stupidity. There is no real cure for either of these two social problems. People who espouse weird (and often dangerous) beliefs can't really be argued with effectively, much less educated on the spot! They generally are best left alone. However, this does not mean that we as good citizens cannot be spokesmen for facts and reality, when the opportunity presents. No one should completely ignore dangerous falsehoods when they pop up in, and are presented by, the news media as "valid opinions," or "alternative facts!" In our discussions we will avoid political and religious aspects of pseudoscience as much as possible, and confine our analyses to false ideas which are often deeply embedded in popular culture, but are not otherwise shielded from rational critique.

Pseudosciences are being invented constantly, but one of the most popular with the general public is considerably more than 2000 years old and is inherently absurd, as was pointed out by Roman statesman Cicero about that long ago! Only slightly more than half of the US population recognizes it as pseudoscience, and in very recent years its popularity has been steadily growing, a growth not indicated on this older chart. On-line sources will usually say that 25% of the US population believes in astrology, but this is very misleading.  Another 25% believes in that basic framework, but doesn't know it's called "astrology."

Pseudoscience is closely allied with the phenomenon of "science denial." A surprisingly large fraction of the population rejects most or all of the discoveries of science... including the fact that germs and viruses cause disease, the fact that the universe began about 13.8 billion years ago and can be directly observed and measured at the early age of 380,000 years, the observable fact of biological evolution, the basic facts and well-established physics of global warming, etc., etc., etc.!

From August 22, 2023: One third of US adults think vaccinations cause mass death!  This underscores the fact that a significant fraction of the US population has no sources of valid information that they are familiar with or regularly consult.

Another place where pseudoscience and nonsensical claims are frequently encountered is advertising! Preposterous claims of all kinds have been present in advertising since its earliest days. There apparently are no legal penalties for lying to the public about the product you are selling, so almost every product is promoted with at least a few total falsehoods.

Modern journalism has basically been killed by "bothsidesism," or "balance," which to journalists seems to mean that any statement of fact has to be balanced by "an alternate viewpoint," which can only be nonsense and pseudoscience. Journalists also like to cover completely meaningless drivel such as "this full moon is a spectacular supermoon," instead of covering actual developments in astronomy, or science in general. Science journalism is essentially nonexistent today.

A really surprising number of pseudoscientific claims come from misconceptions based on the very difficult to understand mathematics of probability.  We will have more to say about this later in the class.

Is it JUST A THEORY?

When this plausible-sounding crackpot's ideas about agriculture shaped official agricultural policy in the Soviet Union and China, millions of people starved to death after massive crop failures, and the entire science of genetics was wiped out in the Soviet Union, with most prominent geneticists being sent to Siberian Labor Camps!  When pseudoscience allies with politics, the danger to the public at large can become massive.