Pseudoscientific Scientists July 12, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in career, work.Tags: astrology, colleagues, coworkers, pseudoscience
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I talked a little while ago about trying to get my kids thinking critically about things that they read. I think it’s important to try to be realistic in expectations of how our kids develop those skills. It takes time to learn to question things and understand the role of evidence.
But what about when you have a colleague who is into pseudoscience? It recently came to my attention that someone who I know rather distantly and has a technical profession is rather heavily involved in some of this stuff. Now before you say anything, I am considering pseudoscience and religion/spirituality separate issues and won’t tolerate comments ragging on people’s religious beliefs. Pseudoscience, to me, is something which is easily tested and has been disproved…but people choose to believe it. One example would be astrology…which is what I’ll use as the problem ‘belief’ in this situation.
I began thinking I was relieved that I don’t work with this person because I wouldn’t be sure what to do. But what if I did?
I suppose this is where academics are lucky. Tenure is supposed to allow them to get involved in whatever they’re interested in without having to worry about how those interests, research or otherwise, impact their job. People outside academia or those who haven’t yet received tenure very often have to be more careful about those things. However, I thought tenure was meant to protect either lines of research that were not terribly popular or even political activities.
In my present position, I would be very nervous about someone like that working within my group. If word got out that one of my coworkers was actively promoting astrology, I would be terrified that somehow that person’s activities may somehow be associated with me and my research. I would hope that I would not be the victim of guilt by association. Unfortunately, I think that such activities may be identified with where I work and therefore carry over to me personally. After all, a scientist engaging in an activity that’s scientifically disproven can’t look good.
That brings me to an interesting question: do I have the right to ask them to keep their activities under wraps? If they’re actively promoting them and could be associated with me, I think that gives me a valid reason to ask them to do so out of courtesy. I am guessing it would be out of line for me to ask them to knock it off entirely, as much as I disagree with it. Or do I have to sit there and silently worry?
I am fortunate that this is a hypothetical situation, but I do have to wonder what the colleagues of this person I know might be thinking…
What my kids read… May 3, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in education, younger son.Tags: astrology, books, paranormal, reading, skepticism
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The younger son has had a fear of reading due to his perfectionistic tendencies. In the past few months, however, he’s really taken an interest in it, especially when there are comic books available. (Yay for Marvel comics!) I’m really not too picky about what my kids read. I’m of the opinion that the more you read, the more you learn to think critically.
Or at least, that’s what I thought until the younger boy brought a book home from the library on “Unsolved Mysteries.” Basically, the book talks about all these events that are apparently paranormal. As a scientist who is also a bit on the skeptical side (though I don’t like the term skeptic, despite our subscription to Skeptical Inquirer), I have to admit that it got my hackles up a bit. At first, I wanted to go complain to the librarian.
The funny thing is, though, that I had to sit back and remember that I used to read this stuff, too. I remember checking out books on the Bermuda Triangle and astrology. In fact, I, at one point, went through and plotted out full astrology charts for everyone in my family. I fascinated my family by finding out interesting little factoids like that my sister was actually a Taurus and not an Aries, like we’d always thought, because her sign didn’t fall on the normal dates the year she was born, for some strange reason.
As I continued to read and learn about this stuff, however, I started coming across counter points to all the supernatural phenomena I was interested in. As I became more educated as a scientist, I began looking at how people were conducting their ‘experiments’. And, probably most important, I wanted to know how things worked: I wasn’t satisfied with explanations of, “It can’t be explained!” Eventually, I began looking at things much differently.
I realize the younger boy will probably be walking around for a while talking about the stuff he reads in the book. However, I’m trying to look at this as an opportunity to introduce him to questioning things that he reads and get him thinking about whether or not he can find what might be a more realistic explanation of how things work. It’s a slow process, and it won’t be helped by not exposing him to these things. And having a cultural reference to these things aren’t always bad: we still like to joke about my sister being bull-headed.
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