Supermyths are myths about myths that are created and compounded by experts, spread by pseudo-skeptics and destroyed by evidence. Braced myths are a sub-type of supermyth, created by orthodox expert authorities that are so powerful they are believed to be true by respected scholars who unwittingly promote them as examples of the need to be healthily sceptical of counterknowledge and then, with unintended irony, use them as argument winners to refute other fallacious knowledge.
The Dysology Hypothesis
Letting scholars get away with publishing fallacies and myths signals to others the existence of topics where guardians of good scholarship might be less capable than elsewhere. Such dysology then serves as an allurement to poor scholars to disseminate existing myths and fallacies and to create and publish their own in these topic areas, which leads to a downward spiral of diminishing veracity on particular topics.
Monday, 10 February 2014
The Patrick Matthew Supermyth
Check out Dawkins' video on Patrick Matthew - its full of pseudo-scholarly Darwinist mythmongery. Please read my Best Thinking blog to see the arguments based on facts - as opposed to adoration blinded Darwinist rhetoric - and to follow the debate on the Discovery of the World's Greatest Science Fraud.