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Source: www.carlsagan.com...Baloney Detection Kit... Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts........ Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view. ....... Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities"). ....... Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy. ....... Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours. ....... Quantify, wherever possible. ....... If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work. ....... Occam's razor - if there are two hypotheses that explain the data equally well choose the simpler. ....... Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric: ................................................ Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument. ....... Argument from "authority". ....... Argument from adverse consequences ....... Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence). ....... Special pleading (typically referring to god's will). ....... Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased). ....... Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses). ....... Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes). ....... Misunderstanding the nature of statistics. ....... Inconsistency ........ Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect. ....... Meaningless question........ Confusion of correlation and causation. ....... Caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack. ....... Suppressed evidence or half-truths. .......

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