Scientific Thinking & Methadology

a method of discovering reliable knowledge about nature

Reliable knowledge is one that can be justified

Most individuals believe in things that are unjustifiable

Religion would be "unscientific" since it cannot be justified

Critical thinking is scientific thinking in everyday life

Scientific thinking MUST be used by scientists

Not everyone uses critical thinking

Scientific thinking is the study of nature

Scientific thinking can be applied across many different disciplines

Personal: Critical thinking is applied in advertisement analysis

Evidence

Empirical evidence is susceptible to one's senses (reliable)

Hearsay evidence is what is heard from another person (unreliable)

Revelatory Evidence is evidence revealed by supernatural powers (unreliable)

Authoritarian evidence is the most common alternative to empircal

However it can also be unreliable

Natural evidence is synonymous to empirical (reliable)

What is reliable? It is when evidence can be justified and repeated.

For matters of religion, it is unjustifiable and therefore considered spectral

Reasoning

Humans are not born with logical reasoning, it must be disciplined

Logical thinking is sometimes painful; it forces us to shatter our hopes

Wishful and emotional thinking are far easier, they are unreliable (cannot be justified)

Logical thinking isn't common, but it is key to success in science

Skepticism

Skeptics are understood wrongly in society

They are not close minded, they simply need core evidence in order to believe

Skeptics question truth and reliability; they are the essence of science.