Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is anything that pretends to be science but is not.^[1][2] Together, "pseudo-" and "science" mean "fake science". Pseudoscience may fail one or more parts of being scientific.

Pseudoscience is not just an idea that is not accepted by the mainstream scientific community. It is an idea not open to testing, no matter what evidence against it is available. Despite the fact that the word pseudoscience means "false science", it is the openness to testing which is fundamental to science. This is more fundamental than whether a theory is accepted. After all, ideas have been proved wrong, though once they were believed to be true. Obviously, science is not always right but always open to correction, which makes a clear difference between science and pseudoscience.^[3]

There is a difference, however, between pseudoscience and religion. Astrology is a pseudoscience, because it pretends to be based on facts, but is not. Religions make statements which are certainly not scientific, and are not meant to be. Insofar as a religion makes no factual claims, it is not open to refutation. When it does make factual claims it is vulnerable. A good example is the decision of the Catholic Church to defend the ancient ideas of the heavens (Ptolemy) against the (then) new ideas of Galileo and Copernicus.

1. ↑ Gardner M. 1957. Fads and fallacies in the name of science. 2nd ed. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-20394-2. Originally published 1952 by G.P. Putnam's Sons, under the title In the Name of Science.
2. ↑ Goldacre, Ben 2008. Bad science. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-00-728487-0
3. ↑ Popper K. 1959. The logic of scientific discovery. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-27844-7