Original sentence: Pseudoscientific concepts are widespread in subjects such as alternative medicine as applied to medical treatments and psychology (Lilienfeld 2004).Pseudoscientific thinking has been explained with reference to faulty thinking such as confirmation bias, misattribution of cause and effect, the tendency to hold comforting beliefs and overgeneralization (Beyerstein 1991:30;Devilly 2005:441).Sociologists such as Feyerbend (1975) believe that there is no possibility or value in distinguishing science from pseudoscience.The continued effort to distinguishing pseudoscience from science is valued by researchers such as Thagard (1978) and Beyerstein (1991:30) who emphasize the importance of overcoming popular misconceptions and public neglect of science.Theorists such as Popper (1990) Bunge (1984) and Thagard (1978) say that pseudoscience can be identified by such characteristics as the use of vague exaggerated or untestable claims, over-reliance on confirmation rather than refutation, lack of openness to testing by other experts, and a lack of progress in theory development
Edited sentence: The term pseudoscience or pseudoscientific is sometimes applied by disputants working in the same field to disparage a competing theory or the form of argument used by a rival, sometimes by commentators from outside a field to disparage a whole field, sometimes merely to characterise the fact that a theory published in a popular book has no academic credibility whatsoever, and sometimes in reference to a theory now discarded.There is considerable disagreement about whether it is possible to distinguish "science" from "pseudoscience" in a reliable and objective way, and considerable disagreement about whether attempting to do so has any useful purpose.Those who believe that characterising some areas as pseudoscientific is useful and valid stress the use of vague, exaggerated or untestable claims, over-reliance on confirmation rather than refutation, lack of openness to testing by other experts, and a lack of progress in theory development