feliz navidad

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/12/30/the-child-is-born/?utm_source=The+Catholic+Thing+Daily&utm_campaign=b3a4faf2a4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_07_01_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_769a14e16a-b3a4faf2a4-244190009




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a philological litany of sorts

There is junk science, 
wherein endless experiments are conducted
 to prove things 
that were perfectly obvious to start with.

There is pseudo-science,
 wherein something not obvious,
 but obviously fruitcake, 
is studied
 as if anything could come of it.

There is pathological science, 
wherein the researchers refuse to give up, 
even after the nonsense they are espousing
 has proved chimerical, 
because 
they want the unavailable result so badly. 
(Example, the search for extraterrestrial life.)

There is cargo-cult science, 
in which relations between cause and effect
 have been too casually assumed,
 and an immense research establishment built on top, 
like the bamboo runways 
and control towers of the South Sea islanders.
 (Most medical research is like this.)

There is fraudulent science, 
already mentioned, 
wherein the search
 is chiefly for misleading anecdotes 
to scare people into paying more taxes, 
until they aren’t scared anymore,
 put on yellow vests,
 and riot in the streets of Paris.

There is zombie science 
(example neo-Darwinism), 
in which a theory 
devised in the age of phrenology
 is kept alive 
by
 academic solidarity alone, 
and no stake through the heart 
can kill it.










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