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Post #10 Critical Thinking Process Question Responses (Word document)

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Post #10 Critical Thinking Process Question Responses (Word document)

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Critical Thinking Step-by-Step Process  Assignment 1

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Post #9 Reason of Belief: Unexplained (website)

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Post #9 Reason of Belief: Unexplained (website)

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Definition:
Made to be unknown until further evidence.

Connection:
This website contains 10 unexplained events that science cannot explain because of lack of evidence. When people see, hear or believe something that is not explained, science tries to prove things don’t exist.

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Science is powerful, but there is much it can't explain. And when people see, hear or believe something that is not explained, science finds itself trying to prove things don't exist, and that's truly impossible. In the following pages, you'll learn more about some of the most common inexplicable phenomena - from ghosts to supposed man-like beasts, from incredible experiences at the line between life and death to amazing but unexplained feats of the mind itself. How much of this is real? We'll let you decide.

Related: Check out the 14 biggest historical mysteries that will probably never be solved.

The Taos Hum

Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air.

Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural no one has yet been able to locate the sound's origin. Thing is, a survey revealed that those who claim to hear the sounds actually hear many different sounds, suggesting the experiences may be subjective, not actually objective sounds (and pretty certainly not one particular sound).

The next item on our list could fill big shoes if it had to. Guess what it is?

For decades, large, hairy, manlike beasts called Bigfoot have occasionally been reported by eyewitnesses across America. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found. Not one has been killed by a hunter, struck dead by a speeding car, or even died of natural causes. In the absence of hard evidence like teeth or bones, support comes down to eyewitness sightings and ambiguous photos and films.

Since it is logically impossible to prove a universal negative, science will never be able to prove that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster do not exist, and it is possible that these mysterious beasts lurk far from prying eyes. Call us skeptical, and check out our complete story about Bigfoot.

Intuition

Whether we call it gut feelings, a 'sixth sense,' or something else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or another. Of course, gut feelings are often wrong (how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been sure your plane was going down?), but they do seem to be right much of the time. Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it. But cases of intuition are difficult to prove or study, and psychology may only be part of the answer.

If your intuition is telling you that the next slide is about mysterious disappearances, you're right!

Mysterious Disappearances

People disappear for various reasons. Most are runaways, some succumb to accident, a few are abducted or killed, but most are eventually found. Not so with the truly mysterious disappearances. From the crew of the Marie Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have vanished without a trace. When missing persons are found, it is always through police work, confession, or accident never by 'psychic detectives'). But when the evidence is lacking and leads are lost, even police and forensic science can't always solve the crime.

One word about our next slide: Boo!

Ghosts

From the Shakespeare play "MacBeth" to the NBC show "Medium," spirits of the dead have long made an appearance in our culture and folklore. Many people have reported seeing apparitions of both shadowy strangers and departed loved ones. Though definitive proof for the existence of ghosts remains elusive, sincere eyewitnesses continue to report seeing, photographing, and even communicating with ghosts. Ghost investigators hope to one day prove that the dead can contact the living, providing a final answer to the mystery.

Our next mystery is not about ghosts. Our next mystery is not about ghosts. Wait a minute? Haven't I read that before somewhere?

Deja vu

Deja vu is a French phrase meaning 'already seen,' referring to the distinct, puzzling, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before. A woman might walk into a building, for example, in a foreign country she'd never visited, and sense that the setting is eerily and intimately familiar. Some attribute deja vu to psychic experiences or unbidden glimpses of previous lives. As with intuition (see #3), research into ,human psychology can offer more naturalistic explanations, but ultimately the cause and nature of the phenomenon itself remains a mystery. [ All About Deja Vu]

The next mystery is really out of this world. Read on!

UFOs

There is no doubt that UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) exist - many people see things in the skies that they cannot identify, ranging from aircraft to meteors. Whether or not any of those objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter entirely; given the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from across the universe, such a scenario seems unlikely.

Still, while careful investigation has revealed known causes for most sighting reports, some UFO incidents will always remain unexplained. [ UFO Sightings & News]

You must check out the next mystery. We're deadly serious.

Near-Death Experiences and Life After Death

People who were once near death have sometimes reported various mystical experiences (such as going into a tunnel and emerging in a light, being reunited with loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.) that may suggest an existence beyond the grave. While such experiences are profound, no one has returned with proof or verifiable information from "beyond the grave."

Skeptics suggest that the experiences are explainable as natural and predictable hallucinations of a traumatized brain. A study of people in cardiac arrest in 2015 found that when the heart is dying, it gets peppered by signals from the brain, which tries to stay active. The scramble of signals might be responsible for near-death experiences, researchers figure.

Two mysteries to go. Can you divine what they might be?

Psychic powers and ESP

Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception ( ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread. Many people believe that intuition (see #3) is a form of psychic power, a way of accessing arcane or special knowledge about the world or the future. Researchers have tested people who claim to have psychic powers, though the results under controlled scientific conditions have so far been negative or ambiguous. Some have argued that psychic powers cannot be tested, or for some reason diminish in the presence of skeptics or scientists. If this is true, science will never be able to prove or disprove the existence of psychic powers.

The Body/Mind Connection

Medical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body. The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective - whether they actually are or not. Using processes only poorly understood, the body's ability to heal itself is far more amazing than anything modern medicine could create. So while there are many unexplained phenomena, and frankly some of them are dubious, the explainable science of the body and mind, even if we're still trying to figure much of it out, may be among the most amazing phenomena of all.

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Science is powerful, but it cannot explain everything. And in the vacuum of facts, some strange ideas develop.

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Post #8 Reason of Belief: Patternicity (website) 

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Post #8 Reason of Belief: Patternicity (website) 

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Definition:
Patternicity is when humans hear/see things that are not there- finding a non existent pattern.

Connection:
Within this article, they go into more detail as to why we see faces in nature, interpret window stains as human figures, hear voices in random sounds. Patternicity is the cause of why we believe in such weird things.

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Why do people see faces in nature, interpret window stains as human figures, hear voices in random sounds generated by electronic devices or find conspiracies in the daily news? A proximate cause is the priming effect, in which our brain and senses are prepared to interpret stimuli according to an expected model. UFOlogists see a face on Mars. Religionists see the Virgin Mary on the side of a building. Paranormalists hear dead people speaking to them through a radio receiver. Conspiracy theorists think 9/11 was an inside job by the Bush administration. Is there a deeper ultimate cause for why people believe such weird things? There is. I call it "patternicity," or the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise.

Traditionally, scientists have treated patternicity as an error in cognition. A type I error, or a false positive, is believing something is real when it is not (finding a nonexistent pattern). A type II error, or a false negative, is not believing something is real when it is (not recognizing a real pattern-call it "apatternicity"). In my 2000 book How We Believe (Times Books), I argue that our brains are belief engines: evolved pattern-recognition machines that connect the dots and create meaning out of the patterns that we think we see in nature. Sometimes A really is connected to B; sometimes it is not. When it is, we have learned something valuable about the environment from which we can make predictions that aid in survival and reproduction. We are the ancestors of those most successful at finding patterns. This process is called association learning, and it is fundamental to all animal behavior, from the humble worm C. elegans to H. sapiens.

Unfortunately, we did not evolve a Baloney Detection Network in the brain to distinguish between true and false patterns. We have no error-detection governor to modulate the pattern-recognition engine. (Thus the need for science with its self-correcting mechanisms of replication and peer review.) But such erroneous cognition is not likely to remove us from the gene pool and would therefore not have been selected against by evolution.

In a September paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, "The Evolution of Superstitious and Superstition-like Behaviour," Harvard University biologist Kevin R. Foster and University of Helsinki biologist Hanna Kokko test my theory through evolutionary modeling and demonstrate that whenever the cost of believing a false pattern is real is less than the cost of not believing a real pattern, natural selection will favor patternicity. They begin with the formula pb > c, where a belief may be held when the cost (c) of doing so is less than the probability (p) of the benefit (b). For example, believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind does not cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life.

The problem is that we are very poor at estimating such probabilities, so the cost of believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is just the wind is relatively low compared with the opposite. Thus, there would have been a beneficial selection for believing that most patterns are real.

Through a series of complex formulas that include additional stimuli (wind in the trees) and prior events (past experience with predators and wind), the authors conclude that "the inability of individuals-human or otherwise-to assign causal probabilities to all sets of events that occur around them will often force them to lump causal associations with non-causal ones. From here, the evolutionary rationale for superstition is clear: natural selection will favour strategies that make many incorrect causal associations in order to establish those that are essential for survival and reproduction."

In support of a genetic selection model, Foster and Kokko note that "predators only avoid nonpoisonous snakes that mimic a poisonous species in areas where the poisonous species is common" and that even such simple organisms as " Escherichia coli cells will swim towards physiologically inert methylated aspartate presumably owing to an adaptation to favour true aspartate."

Such patternicities, then, mean that people believe weird things because of our evolved need to believe nonweird things.
Note: This article was originally published with the title, "Patternicity".

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Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in Meaningless Noise

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Why the brain believes something is real when it is not

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Post #7 Reason of Belief: Emotional Connection 

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Post #7 Reason of Belief: Emotional Connection 

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Definition:
Emotional Connection is the idea that you blur all your rational thoughts out and turn to the one that means the most to you even if they are dead or alive. It is based on evidence rather than evidence.

Connection:
In the image below you can see that this person is calling upon her ancestors for guidance in her troubles. In certain situations people ask for guidance from people who mean the most to them even if they have passed away. They have a deeper connection with them and cannot break the bond.

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Post #6 Red Flag: Proof of Verbosity (video)

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Post #6 Red Flag: Proof of Verbosity (video)

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Definition
Someone who’s made a claim and then been asked for evidence to support it. The idea is to show that the claim is wrong and if you can’t find any proof to back up why their claim is wrong, then this means their claim is true.

Connection:
In this video, there a couple examples that show how Proof of Verbosity is used. He explains that people use complex words behind their reasoning so that it sounds true.

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Post #5 Red Flag: Appeal to Authority (picture)

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Post #5 Red Flag: Appeal to Authority (picture)

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Definition:
People who use Appeal to Authority try to convince others with their claims  and pointing to that person’s status, position or qualifications.
eg. person in a white lab coat

Connection:
This image proves that the idea that just because he is a doctor or wearing a lab coat we should trust him. There is no real evidence as to why we should trust him or believe that he really is a doctor because there is no actual proof that he is or isn't.

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Definition:
Confirmation bias is part of human nature. We often remember events that coincide rather than taking notes on events that don't coincide with out beliefs. This ultimately leads us to errors of judgement.

Connection:
In this video, it is explained is that Confirmation bias is the way the brain ignores anything else after your first in counter with someone or a piece of information. It ultimately shapes our understanding of the person or the information that we receive.

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Confirmation Bias: Your Brain is So Judgmental | Heidi Grant Halvorson | Big Think

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Post #3 Red Flag: All Natural (video/article)

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Post #3 Red Flag: All Natural (video/article)

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Definition:
The fallacy that anything All Natural is good for you. The naturalness is not an automatic guarantee of goodness or safety. Many all natural things are poisons and even deadly.
eg. mercury

Connection:
Some people believe that just because that it says All Natural on the label, it is good for us. Information comes from all angles, so how are we to know which articles/bloggers are reliable.

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Whose Facebook feed isn't filled with daily announcements about new skin creams that erase wrinkles and pills that eliminate fat, not to mention a plethora of "natural" remedies that can cure everything from cancer to thyroid disease?

At a time when there are widespread concerns about the genetically modified foods we eat, the water we drink and the plastics we use - with social media quickly spreading misinformation about those concerns - the scientifically illiterate public needs solid reporting more than ever to cut through the jargon and confusion.

But the lines between fact, fiction and science can easily become blurred, especially when bonafide science reporters find themselves having to debunk a deluge of false information from unqualified bloggers who disseminate inaccuracies that become widely shared and accepted.

Joe Schwarcz, director of the McGill Office for Science and Society, consistently rails against some of the worst offenders of this type of sophistry - and now he's bringing together experts to examine the issue of reporting science responsibly for this year's annual Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium on Monday and Tuesday.

Four prominent science journalists will discuss how they distinguish good information from bad and why their work is more important than ever in an age of social media, as the public faces a tsunami of information about everything from what we eat to how we treat disease, to the cosmetics we use.

"To be 'unmisinformed' takes work," Schwarcz, who writes the Gazette's The Right Chemistry column, said in an interview. There is "outrageous scientific nonsense" spewed by bloggers like the Food Babe, he said, offering "simple solutions to complex problems" that are, therefore, readily accepted by the public.

That makes it "an uphill battle" for scientists and responsible science reporters who want to present factual information, he said. Among the biggest myths he has found himself battling is that natural products are benign and somehow superior to anything manufactured, and that the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries are part of an evil conspiracy.

"The whole natural thing is nonsense - it's just a marketing term," Schwarcz said, noting many harmful poisons are "natural."

Erica Johnson is a CBC investigative reporter who has hosted Marketplace and has now joined the network's Go Public team. She will be talking at the symposium about her work trying to shed light on alternative health remedies, like homeopathic treatments, and other "scam" remedies.

She says it's a $2.4-billion-a-year industry shilling products that have little or no science behind them. Homeopathy, for example, is based on taking a molecule from an illness and diluting it repeatedly, but the products have no active ingredient and there's no evidence to support claims that they work, she said.

She recalled how an industry spokesperson told her how the products work is "a mystery."

"It was so shocking," Johnson said in an interview. "These products have an air of legitimacy, but they can be harmful, especially those claiming they can cure cancer."

What's even worse, she said, is Health Canada doles out licences for all kinds of alternative health remedies. For a report, her team created a bogus product to help fever and pain in children, a product that had never been tested, and was surprised at how easy it was to get a licence to sell it.

Health Canada tightened the rules applying to products for children 12 and under after that report, she said.

There are definitely charlatans who walk among us, according to Joel Achenbach, another symposium speaker, who writes on science and politics for the Washington Post.

But now, he said, some of the pseudo-science is starting to spill over into real policy issues: about whether GMOs are safe, climate change and vaccines. (The anti-vaccine movement, in particular, has led many parents to take the dangerous step of not vaccinating their children to prevent diseases, despite the fact the original study linking vaccines to autism was discredited.)

"It bothers me when people follow pseudo-scientific advice in a way that can hurt their health," Achenbach said in an interview. "The rise of pseudo-scientific notions has certainly coincided with the rise of the Internet. It's made it much easier for fringe beliefs to develop a following."

For starters, he said, people shouldn't assume that every new study is going to hold up. Scientific discoveries tend to be incremental, not earth-shattering.

"Most incredible claims just aren't true," he said.
kseidman@postmedia.com
AT A GLANCE

The Lorne Trottier Symposium will be held Oct. 17-18, starting at 1:30 p.m. on Monday with a roundtable and on Tuesday at noon with a podcast recording, with keynote speakers at 5:30 p.m. both days. The event will be held at Centre Mont Royal, 1000 Sherbrooke St. W., except for Monday's roundtable, which is at the McGill Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish St. (Billiards Room, 3rd floor). Admission is free.

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Symposium to debunk quack cures and junk science

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Whose Facebook feed isn't filled with daily announcements about new skin creams that erase wrinkles and pills that eliminate fat, not to mention a plethora of "natural" remedies that can cure everything from cancer to thyroid disease?

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Post #2 Red Flag: Ancient Wisdom (picture)

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Post #2 Red Flag: Ancient Wisdom (picture)

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Definition:
Ancient Wisdom is the practices preformed in the ancient times by ancient beings using their knowledge. It is logically yet backwards to think the ancients had more knowledge than the modern day science.
eg. the burning of witches

Connection:
Marijuana has been cultivated and used worldwide for thousands of years for medicine, meditation, and religious purposes.

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Made by Aliyah Vincent Pierre