Observe-->Hypothesize-->Test-->Analyse-->Conclude

That's how to find the truth. Far too often, we forget parts of this equation.

Some will observe an event, make a guess about its cause, and then make a conclusion about what it is without testing and analyzing the results of the test. A good example is when someone sees an unfamiliar object in the sky, postulates that it might be extraterrestrial is nature, and then makes that conclusion.

Others will forget the first 3 steps, and simply analyze a subject and make conclusions in a vacuum. A good example of this is when a religious person interprets the meaning of scripture, making moral conclusions and applying it to their life without ever observing or testing the existence of god

Many others will simply skip the analysis. They'll observe something, test it on themselves, take the results as they are and conclude based on that. A good example is the hiccup: Someone who has the hiccups hypothesizes that by holding their breath the hiccups will go away. Then when the hiccups go away, the conclusion is made that the holding of breath was the cause. Not necessarily. This is called 'confirmation bias'. It may well have been something else.

You can also skip every step that does the work by forgetting to observe, test or analyze. This is called making shit up because you like the sound of it. For example, "I feel in my heart that human beings are one with the universe, and nothing you can say can change my mind." Beware of anyone that says "nothing can change my mind" because that's a dangerous thought indeed.

These flaws in procedure are VERY easy to understand. The people making the mistakes (myself included, more often that I'd like to admit) have a lot of trouble letting go of these flaws, especially when they relate to the very core of their being. We are far more happy being wrong when the comfort of the lie is so much more appealing than the truth.... I'm pretty sure that sentence is grammatically incorrect. Hopefully my message is understood through the flaws.

My point in this post is that most of the time, we follow the procedure outlined in the title of this post. Observation: Two object dropped at equal distance from the ground fall at different speeds with respect to each other, but at the same speed with respect to themselves. Hypothesis: a universal force acts on both objects, and another force causes the difference in speed. Test: control for one variable and test for the other. Analyze: look at the data, cross reference with similar experiments, have your own experiment replicated by others. Conclusion: gravity is a separate force from wind resistance.

That's a pretty bad explanation, but if you remove any of those steps, you've got a problem. Forget to observe, and you'd have no information to draw from. Forget to hypothesize and you'd end up running toward the nearest conclusion that anyone could come up with. Forget to test, and there's no way to determine true events from false ones. Forget to analyze, and you may never see the flaws in the experiment. Forget to conclude, and no one would ever agree on a shared experience.

It's very, very easy to miss something here. Recently, I've read blogs that completely forget the first 2 or 3 steps in this process, and attempt to determine reality through only the lens of Christianity. I've read news stories that skip the middle steps and forget all the work involved in making good medical decisions. I've read awesome blogs from people I respect, yet forget to analyze their own biases, only to find myself represented as a villain when I should be an ally. FUCK your biases, and fuck your conclusions if you lean on them.

If you want to get to the bottom of something and make social change happen, do the work. If you'd rather skip the work and go straight to the conclusion by your own illogical means, don't expect anyone to take you seriously.