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#1 Any good scientific theory should be internally consistent. It should accord with the evidence. While this may seem obvious, the scientist should demand more rigorous standards than what the lay person normally accepts.

#2 Good science is based on the systematic collection of extensive data that support its findings. It is not impressed by the age of an idea, and it is easy to find reasons to believe in it. It is difficult to find reasons to not believe in it.

#3 Science thrives on the free exchange of ideas and on intellectual competition. It stagnates when, as happened in the Middle Ages under the Catholic Church and under Stalin in the Soviet Union, an outside agency attempts to impose an orthodoxy on scientists that is not rooted in their work.

#4 The first limit to the imitation of the methods of the physical sciences is that social scientists can rarely construct experiments. While researching the Ulster Defense Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, I found that the most important thing in keeping leaders in office was their ability to persuade and reconcile.