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Ground rules for debate

To use the scientific method in debate, we have to move past bias.

That means every claim should be judged by the quality of evidence supporting it. Not all evidence is equal. A feeling, a quote, a video, a personal story, a measurement, and a repeatable test do not all carry the same weight.

The stronger the claim, the stronger the evidence should be. Weak evidence depends mostly on what someone thinks, feels, or says. Strong evidence can be observed, measured, tested, repeated, and confirmed by independent people using different methods.

Evidence Weight

Quality of Evidence (Weakest → Strongest)

  1. Opinion or intuition — "It just seems right to me."
  2. Someone else's claim — A social media post, YouTube video, podcast, or someone's testimony.
  3. Expert opinion — An expert's conclusion without examining their evidence yourself.
  4. Historical records — Books, journals, maps, photographs, newspapers, and archived documents.
  5. Personal observation — Looking for yourself and honestly describing what you see.
  6. Independent observations — Comparing what many unrelated people have observed in different places and at different times.
  7. Objective measurements — Measuring distances, angles, shadows, times, elevations, or other quantities instead of relying only on appearance.
  8. Repeatable tests — Designing a simple experiment that anyone can perform and checking whether the results are consistent.
  9. Reproducible evidence — Different people perform the same test independently and obtain the same results.
  10. Converging evidence (Strongest) — Many different kinds of evidence—historical records, observations, measurements, experiments, and independent investigations—all point to the same conclusion.

A good rule to follow

The more an idea depends on what someone says, the weaker the evidence.

The more it depends on what anyone can independently observe, measure, test, and repeat, the stronger the evidence.

The strongest conclusions are those supported by multiple independent methods that all arrive at the same answer. That makes it much less likely the conclusion is due to bias, error, or coincidence.

A good checklist

When evaluating any claim, ask yourself:

  • What evidence would convince me I'm wrong?
  • Am I examining all the evidence or only the evidence I like?
  • Can this claim be independently tested or measured?
  • Has anyone else repeated the test?
  • Do multiple independent lines of evidence point to the same conclusion?

When working to overturn established scientific evidence the most important rule is:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Matthew Bartley, RN, MSN, PMH-BC

Associate Professor at Winona State University

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." — Epictetus
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge." — Daniel J. Boorstin
"Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world." — Louis Pasteur
"Science is a beautiful gift to humanity, we should not distort it." — A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." — Marie Curie
"Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge." — Stephen Hawking
"Science is the key to our future, and if you don't believe in science, then you're holding everybody back." — Bill Nye
"Every brilliant experiment, like every great work of art, starts with an act of imagination." — Jonah Lehrer
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been... nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" — Isaac Asimov
"People fear what they don't understand and hate what they can't conquer." — Andrew Smith
"It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that one has never heard before." — Robert G. Ingersoll
"The human mind is a lot like the human egg. When one sperm gets into the human egg, there's an automatic shut-off device that prevents any other sperm from getting in. The human mind has a big tendency of the same sort." — Charlie Munger
"Men willingly believe what they wish." — Julius Caesar
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it." — Flannery O'Connor