Scientific philosopher, Sr Karl Popper, shared his thoughts as to what makes science versus pseudoscience. You can read Popper’s thoughts in the book Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge.
In the book, which I’ve yet to read, Popper lays out seven conclusions. The first is what I find deeply curious:
“It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory–if we look for confirmations.”
Do you know people who walk around complaining about the world? It’s almost like they’re a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those people say things like “see, I told you this was going to suck.” That person believes they have a keen and infallible intuition that can’t be wrong. Popper’s first conclusion speaks to those people.
Popper would argue that if we truly want to test our theories, then we should stop trying to prove them right and instead prove them wrong. As Popper says, “the criterion of the scientific status of a theory is its falsifiability, or refutability, or testability.”
Nowadays, we must be on guard for claims and ideas that can’t be tested and refuted. We must guard our minds and souls against theories masquerading as facts.
Remember, our minds may routinely betray us too.