Is there an Anti-Appeal To Common Belief Fallacy?

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Davo	Is there an Anti-Appeal To Common Belief Fallacy? I have heard in the past, "Well, for years science thought that the universe was only 4 billion years old. Why should we believe science when it now says that the universe is 13 billion years old?" Is this a fallacy at all? If so, what is this fallacy called?
	asked on Monday, Nov 03, 2014 06:07:55 PM by Davo
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Bo Bennett, PhD 0	Not sure about any Anti-Appeal To Common Belief Fallacy here, but it is certainly fallacious for a different reason: Reification . Science does not think—science is the process in which scientists draw conclusions based on the best available evidence. It might be reasonable to not trust in people, but what they are really doing is stating that they are not trusting the scientific process, that is, they are not trusting the process of drawing conclusions based on the best available evidence. In doing so, they are implicitly (if not explicitly) rejecting reason. We don't believe in science, we trust in the scientific process. Conclusions drawn using the scientific method may change—that is the nature and the strength of the scientific process: to bring us closer to the truth as more and/or better information becomes available. Reification of science allows people to demonize science—like it is SATAN incarnate—since it is much more difficult to demonize a process.
	answered on Monday, Nov 03, 2014 07:58:03 PM by Bo Bennett, PhD
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