The kids are taking a course in critical thinking this semester. I look forward to this class, which I arranged for them, more than any other they've taken. I see bias and false or specious claims to science used to bad end on a daily basis. 

It is wonderful to have the opinions of professionals. It is always helpful and wise to choose references and sources from well reasoned and respectable institutions. Science should be and often is a helpful tool for analyzing our world and parsing the truth from our own biases and beliefs.

However, in my own short time on earth I've been around to see several massive shifts in scientific thinking. Since the 1960s science has told us with strong conviction:

Cigarettes are healthy, even for treating asthma.
Cigarettes are unhealthy, especially for asthma.
Hydrogenated fat is healthier for human consumption than saturated fat.
Hydrogenated fat is unhealthy for human consumption.
Saturated fat causes heart disease.
Saturated fat does not cause heart disease.
Birth is safest in a hospital setting.
Birth is demonstrably safer with far fewer interventions than happen in hospitals.
Canned formula is equal to and often superior to human breast milk for babies.
Human breast milk is superior for human babies.

There are many many other scientific reversals we could point to. And there are intriguing emerging shifts, such as:

Fresh cow milk is dangerous for human consumption.
Fresh cow milk is associated with statistically significant reduction in allergies, asthma, and a 30% reduction in viruses and bacterial infections when fed to human babies.

See where I'm going with this? Science, at its best and purest, is a careful system for asking questions, testing answers, and using those answers to ask more questions. By definition, science does not PROVE anything. Science suggests, offers data, illuminates information. Or, at least, it should.

Science is not holy and scientific thought is subject to bias, mistake, and frank corruption. We've seen this time and again, across history and culture. Please consider: "Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science" History, observation, common sense, and good old intuition are all valid, valuable, and necessary components of healthy discernment in the quest for truth, reality, and good decision making when it comes to the care of humans, animals, and our planet.

We are all diminished when we rely too completely on the authority of science, without healthy skepticism and the consideration of history as well as our own observation and common sense.