Science works, everything else is bullshit. Next question?

Well said. Applying the scientific method to alternative medicine is the only way forward. While I certainly support the study of "alternative ways" I also support rejecting completely anything which is proved to be utter bullshit.

If science is so perfect then why have there been so many mistakes and false assumptions made in science in the past? And if there were mistakes before, why wouldn't there continue to be mistakes being made now?

Science is a very good, very effective way of thinking but if you think there is nothing else, you are just as foolish as those who believe in magic,

My opinion has always been that anything else was magic. When acupuncturists talk about streams of Chi flowing through the body, they're talking metaphorically about an essentially magical force. At the same time, acupuncture works wonders for a lot of people (including a friend of mine who was cured of a mysterious disease by acupuncture only after exhausting all Western alternatives). So their magical metaphor is something that could be investigated under the scientific method so that it can be fully understood and even improved.

Respected scientists once believed the earth was flat.

"If science is so perfect then why have there been so many mistakes and false assumptions made in science in the past? And if there were mistakes before, why wouldn't there continue to be mistakes being made now?"

It's simple. The vast majority of people (including scientists) are stubborn, stupid, and easily buffaloed. The mistakes made in the past come not from the scientific method itself, but people using the scientific method improperly.

The important thing about science is that all good hypotheses/theories are testable and falsifiable. The same cannot be said of some proponents of alternative medicines, who argue that the methods they employ cannot be proven to work because such methods are beyond falsifying and testing.

bsharporflat:

If science is so perfect then why have there been so many mistakes and false assumptions made in science in the past? And if there were mistakes before, why wouldn't there continue to be mistakes being made now?

Science is a very good, very effective way of thinking but if you think there is nothing else, you are just as foolish as those who believe in magic,

the point is that when mistakes were found, they were CORRECTED! That's the big difference. Sure western science makes mistakes, but when it finds out about them, it eventually corrects them. Not so with alternative medicine practioners, they keep plugging along with things that have been proven to do nothing.

I see...it isn't the scientific method that is imperfect but the people! Got it. So, the scientific method was created by....um.....aw..you aren't saying it was Him, now are you? But what other being could create a perfect, infallible system for assessing truth? Any chance scientific method has inherent flaws? (it does, if you are interested in that).

Science works, everything else is bullshit? You are every bit the fundamentalist that Jerry Falwell was.

He's right. Jerry Falwell is just an ordinary creep.

bsharporflat:

I see...it isn't the scientific method that is imperfect but the people! Got it. So, the scientific method was created by....um.....aw..you aren't saying it was Him, now are you? But what other being could create a perfect, infallible system for assessing truth? Any chance scientific method has inherent flaws? (it does, if you are interested in that).

Um... Apparently you didn't read my post too closely. The scientific method may well be flawed, as are its creators. Its STRENGTH is that it will be modified when found to be flawed.

As opposed to contiuning on with stuff that is shown to be worthless.

"Respected scientists once believed the earth was flat."

Nice try, but no.

And even if that were true, science is a process that improves itself over time. There are dishonest or deluded practitioners of science, or those that cling to dead hypotheses out of pride, but the process finds them out and more of reality is exposed. It's the process that matters.