Anyone who has done a basic course in statistics-one of the pillars of the modern scientific method-knows about “the null hypothesis”. In order to prove a causal connection, the scientists begin by testing the “null hypothesis”-the hypothesis that the connection between the two variables studied could have happened by chance alone. Then they perform their magic and show via “p” values (known as statistical significance) that this is highly unlikely to be the case.
All of this might seem like purely technical issues but it is ,in fact, much deeper than that! It is symbolic or perhaps more precisely symptomatic, of an approach-an approach that begins, at the very start and in a very fundamental way, with the negative. No surprise then that scientists when they are being scientists ,as opposed to marketers and propagandists which many do become, seem unsure, confused, overly complicated and generally unimpressive in their personalities.( Ever been to University lol?)
Once again, this may all seem abstract and unimportant but that is very far from the Truth. The consequences are enormous! Let me give you some examples. In the current pandemic of SARS Covid-2 there were early signs that hydroxychloriquine and other forms of chloroquine could be effective against the virus. Chloroquine had already been shown to be effective against Covid-1 and MERS.Early clinical reports from docs like Didier Raoult in France and Peter McCullough in the U.S. were showing promising results. Then Ivermectin came on the scene and the results seemed even better.
But the ” scientific” types were not buying it. There were no “large-scale randomized, double-blind peer-reviewed studies that had published in prestigious journals”(their religious belief lol) to prove it, they claimed.. Only two years later when Pfizer came out with Paxlovid-in limited quantities- was there possibly an equivalent. Because of this “doubting” mindset it is very likely that hundreds of thousands of Americans and Millions of people world-wide died and many more were seriously ill with long-term consequences. This is no laughing matter! The cost of doubt can be extremely high.
Now, just in case you are doubting my analysis( which if you were well-educated you should be doing by now lol)I am well-aware of the economic incentives to deny the truth of the efficacy of these cheap, repurposed drugs! And that is certainly an important variable. However,I feel that it is VERY important not to deny the intellectual fault-line as well as the economic one. After all ,that is what the Faucis and organizations like the WHO use to justify and convince the medical community about their corrupt practices.
Another example of this “Pathological Doubting” occurs in the literature about near-death experiences. It is patently clear that these experiencers have left their bodies and travelled with their souls to other worlds. In a normal world, there should be no doubt(see the chapter on “The Doubters” in my book “The Big Questions:Evidence-Based Faith”.)But instead of accepting these accounts on face value ,the doubters come along and develop all kinds of far-fetched theories about brain chemistry and neurophysiology. What is even more incredible is that many “normal”people (those who haven’t joined the cult yet!) because the doubting voices sound “scientific” buy into it. More brain-washing from our educational system!
Now, surprisingly and paradoxically, this same “scientific” community is involved in “Pathological Certainty'” as well! Wtf you might think?! Yes, they don’t even remain consistent even though consistency is one of their main beliefs-one of the Ten Commandments of the Rationnalists. Aristotle must be turning over in his grave lol.
So what do I mean by “Pathological Certainly.” Two examples come to mind. One from the world of Vaccinology and one from the proponents of Anthropogenic Climate Change. Let us start with the first. All over the media, as well as in medical conferences, one hears the mantra: “Vaccines are Safe and Effective’ .Not even any caveats as we see on American TV when new medications come out.”This medication can cause this and that problem .It should not be used in this or that situation”. None of that! “Vaccines are Safe and Effective” .And yet all around us -with the slightest bit of research(have you seen the VAERS?!) or even looking around us, we can see the contrary. We see people who have been vaccine injured and we see people who have gotten sick with Covid despite being fully vaccinated. No mention of those realities in the Infomercials that pass as Public Health Announcements about vaccines. Nope “safe and effective” period. Do they take us for idiots?! Yes, they do. The problem is they may be not that far from the Truth lol.People are refusing to look into these questions for fear of the consequences to their personal lives. So they live in ignorance.
Now well before the Covid epidemic there were issues about the vaccine mandate in children. Were the vaccines causing autism? Were they doing irreversible damage to the neurological and immune systems of our children? We didn’t know. However, in the last three years we have some very credible studies done by credible scientists like Brian Hooker and James Lyons- Weiler, showing clearly the long-term detrimental effects of the vaccine mandates on children(see the “Vaccine Issue” on this blog.)Anyone in the scientific community noticing?! Certainly not the champions of “science”. They just keep repeating the mantra:”Vaccines are Safe and Effective”.
The other example of “Pathological Certaintly” occurs in the domain of climate change. We are told repeatedly that the theory of “Anthrogenic(man-made) Climate Change is irrefutable. A consensus of 97% of published papers confirm it. A gerry-madered statistic by the way. I never really bought the theory?! After all, we have no control over earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and volcanoes-all the other climate events. How come we have control over the Earths temperature?! Never really made sense to me. Sounded like human hubris! We are in control, right? Wrong! The temperature of the Earth has been changing up and down since the beginning of Creation! it has been a lot colder and a lot hotter. And the Neaderthals ,a time of greater warming than now, were NOT driving SUVs and burning coa-l as far as I know lol.
For those who like documentation and data ,there are two relatively new books “Unsettled” by Steven E. Koonin- a theoretical physicist trained at the world-famous Caltech and “Inconvenient Facts’ by Gregory Wrighthouse who covers much of the same material in a more user-friendly format, that seriously challenge the catechismic belief that “man is responsible for the current climate changes because of the “greenhouse effect” due to the carbon imprint on the atmosphere”. If you want a lighter read you can check out “Climate Change;An Alternative Analysis” on this very blog. S o you can have plenty of support for the counter-argument that man has very little impact on climate generally. All he can do is ‘adapt“. If you think more metaphysically, that is our usual Existential position-relative impotence. That’s why we need belief in a Higher Power-a subject for a later essay lol
So… bottom line; Contemporary man is contaminated by both “Pathological Doubt” and “Pathological Certainty” -both in the name of science! Btw who started this cult?! It could and is leading to our destruction! But I won’t say “certainly” lol so as to distinguish my approach from that of the so-called “scientists”