It’s up at Google Video (and embedded here). Check it.
Enemies of Reason Part II
Comments
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He he; I loved seeing the head spider thingy at the beginning sequence.
One thing I’d take issue with this episode is the idea that science and reason had a heyday that is now gone. That somehow this “war” is new or much worse than it was. Superstition isn’t new and in any event, I’d like to hear about some evidence that superstition is increasing. Within the alternative health area, look at ads from the teens and ’20s, they are at least as common it seems to me (much of this crap lead to the creation of the FDA). I’m not so sure things, bad as they are in certain sectors, are as dire as Dawkins makes them out to be.
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I tend to agree. Irrationality is nothing new, and quackery has been with us ever since scientific medicine’s rise. However, what is new are things like the British government funding homeopathy or the U.S. funding NCCAM.
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I wonder if the funding of the NCCAM and homeopathy in the U.K. aren’t symptoms of increased acceptance of quackery. I have a hard time imagining how to quantify the amount of quackery and the acceptance of it by the public.
Anyone have any ideas how to ask this question experimentally?
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Someone should tell Deepak that one shouldn’t wear a striped shirt with a striped suit. And what is up with that tie?
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Agreed that then finding is disturbing. I happen to think it’ll dry up though, at least for NCCAM. The CW around federal agencies is that this crap needs the ax and the word is getting back to Congress. I think the ax is already mid swing. How soon, I don’t know, it will be gradual, but so far I’ll admit it’s still generally moving in the wrong direction(http://nccam.nih.gov/about/appropriations/).
To be fair, some would argue that it’s important for the very fact of showing what doesn’t work (i.e. the recent finding that, gasp, shark cartilage isn’t an effective treatment for lung cancer). I would respond that the type of people interested in taking shark cartilage probably aren’t reading NIH-funded research.
Stripes on stripes – A clear sign of a irrational mind (or someone without a mirror).
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