Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

muriel_volestrangler

(103,171 posts)

17. I dispute it's like the case of evolution

Mon Jul 20, 2015, 03:42 PM

Jul 2015

This is about the categories you split the bodies into, not about facts. So, yes, votes have no effect at all on scientific fact; but I can't see how this is 'like voting on evolution', since that would be voting about facts.

If you want as little voting as possible, I think you'd support calling Pluto a planet, because that just developed as a consensus without a formal vote. The IAU voted to have a formal definition of 'planet' that excluded Pluto. What about Ceres? When that was the first asteroid discovered, they called it a planet, thinking it occupied the 'gap' in Bode's Law. But then they found more asteroids around the same orbit, and it just sort of dropped out of being a planet, some time in the first half of the nineteenth century. Should that be a planet again, because it was at one time?

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Once again, some DUers think science is a democratic proposition. [View all] HuckleB Jul 2015 OP

How Pluto is classified is as much a cultural exercise as a scientific one. Skinner Jul 2015 #1

You're wrong about the reason for the reclassification. LiberalAndProud Jul 2015 #2

I did not say it was arbitrary. Nor do I believe it to be arbitrary. Skinner Jul 2015 #3

So, you didn't acknowledge that other DUers thought it should be up for popular vote? HuckleB Jul 2015 #6

Pluto was reclassified as the largest object in the Kuiper Belt Warpy Jul 2015 #9

But it was up for vote - that's rather the point muriel_volestrangler Jul 2015 #13

That's rather like voting on evolution Warpy Jul 2015 #16

I dispute it's like the case of evolution muriel_volestrangler Jul 2015 #17

Post removed Post removed Jul 2015 #5

BTW, if you want to ban me, just do it. HuckleB Jul 2015 #7

Walt Starr did this so much better than you.... Little Star Jul 2015 #8

Why not hold democratic votes on other sciency stuff? Like abortion, vaccinations... DetlefK Jul 2015 #4

That's a weird argument you're putting forward there muriel_volestrangler Jul 2015 #10

But we need terms that are practical. DetlefK Jul 2015 #11

But wishing to use a definition that held for 75 years isn't 'pseudoscience' muriel_volestrangler Jul 2015 #12

It's not democracy per se. DetlefK Jul 2015 #14

But the decision isn't in the same category as the 'sciency stuff' you listed in #4 muriel_volestrangler Jul 2015 #15