Pseudo-science - The List

In My Humble Opinion
1

I recently saw “White Noise” (here’s what I really think about that movie)

Before seeing the back cover of this DVD, I had never heard of EVP i.e electronic voice phenomenon, being the hearing of voices in tape hiss - and of course those voices are of the dead.

I thought I’d seen everything, but no, I guess not. Which leads me to this thread: What other bullshit science may I not have heard of? Let’s make a list.

To get started, here are the quick and obvious ones:

[ul]
[li]Astrology[/li][li]UFOlogy[/li][li]EVP[/li][li]Parapsychology[/li][li]Feng Shui[/li][li]Creation science[/li][/ul]

2

How about pseudo-medical stuff, like homeopathy?

3

If we are to include medical stuff like homeopathy:
Acupuncture
High Colonics
Aromatherapy

4

Handwriting analysis.
Lie detectors.

5

NDE(Near Death Experience)

6

phrenology (head-bump reading)

7

Cryptozoology.

8

creams that make you thinner, in fact, just about most of the female cosmetic industry.
exercise in your sleep devices
magnetic water conditioners

9

Scientology
Copper bracelets

10

Elaborate

11

Crytozoology is the pseudo-science name for the “study” of legendary creatures like Bigfoots, Yetis, Nessie, etc.

12

As I learned in a previous thread, handwriting analysis is a legitimate science. It’s graphology that’s the pseudo-science.

13

What are people’s thoughts on chiropractic? Does it belong on the list?

14

Depends on what it’s treating. I don’t think chiropractic is necessarily pseudo-scientific when it is used to treat back pain. I do think it is pseudo-scientific (and dangerously so) when it is used to treat cancer.

15

Orgone Studies.
Perpetual Motion Engineering.

16

Eye exercises to improve vision.

17

All right! Another one I’d not heard of (oh, and Dio’s word for bigfoot studies: cryptozoolgy! cool) Looked at a couple of sites and, no, I think Orgone studies merits further consideration… Ha!

Oh, another for the list: water dowsing.

18

First of all, lets be clear on the terms. The term pseudoscience really means fake science. It refers to things that appear to a layman to be informed scientific comment, but actually isn’t.

Things like astrology per se doesn’t even pretend to be scientific. It is non-science, not pseudoscience.

You do it a disservice. In the first place, the major concerns of cryptozoology are following up sightings of supposedly extinct animals. They do occasionally turn out to be true.

Secondly, even studies of Bigfoot can be legitimate. An expert zoologist might study a bigfoot film, and produce a detailed analysis showing that the gait is consistent with a man in a monkey suit, but different from any other primate.

Even James Randi says that cryptozoology is a legitimate science.

19

Isn’t there a psuedoscience where people’s ailments are diagnosed by the practitioner looking into the patient’s eyes? No, not optometry (smartass), but all types of ailments.

20

[ul][li]Over Unity/Zero Point Energy devices.[/li][li]Holocaust revisionism. [/li][li]Postmodernist literature/philosophy analysis.[/li][li]Intelligent Design.[/li][li]The pseudoarcheology of Thor Heyerdahl and Erich von Daniken[/li][li]Vedic Science.[/li][li]Christian Science.[/li][li]Dianetics/Scientology.[/li][li]Political Science. [/li]li market forcasting.[/li][li]Star Wars/Star Trek/Matrix science/philosophy treatments.[/li][li]Alan Greenspan’s attempts to control/guide the American economy. [/ul][/li]
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