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More New Age nonsense

Monday, 13th August 2007

I'm not sure I've ever seen a sillier, or misleading, supposedly serious piece in the Observer than this by their astrologer, Neil Spencer.

Astrology is, as any fule know, utter drivel. Much of it is simply made up (I know, because my job once involved doing just that for one of the leading 'serious' astrology phone lines) and anyone who takes it seriously believes in the equivalent of little fairies in the garden. The same goes, of course, for homeopathy, which is just as silly.

So - surprise, surprise - the paper's astrologer has a would-be attack on Richard Dawkins' dismissal of New Agey, 'alternative' medicine. And what a shoddy piece it is. This is typical of the sleights of hand he attempts:

Few things arouse the indignation of science's hard hats like non-conventional approaches to healing. Homeopathy and acupuncture are particularly repellent since they work through mechanisms unknown to the laws of physics. Homeopathy's supposed cures are, according to Dawkins, merely the result of the placebo effect. 'It's our own minds that cure the pain,' he concludes. How that explains why animals respond to homeopathy isn't confronted.

See how he conflates acupuncture and homeopathy, and talks about unknown mechanisms. There is a huge difference. Homeopathy doesn't work. End of story. It is a nonsense, a non science, and a non treatment. Any money spent on it is money down the drain. No reputable study has ever found evidence of its impact.

Acupuncture is very different. Evidence shows that it can indeed work. The puzzle is not whether it works, but how. Reputable scientists are indeed puzzled by how it works, and the quest is to unravel this.

Arguing that homeopathy - a waste of time and money - and acupuncture - which science shows works, but which science does not yet fully understand - are in any way similar is typical of the quackery which New Age charlatans promote and profit from.

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Tim Worstall

August 13th, 2007 2:26pm

"Homeopathy doesn't work. End of story. It is a nonsense, a non science, and a non treatment. Any money spent on it is money down the drain." No, no, no, Stephen. You've really not thought this through at all. The reason that homeopathy doesn't work "currently" is because we spend too much money on it. If only we diluted the budget by 30*10, then it would work perfectly, just as the pills do.

Lee Jakeman

August 14th, 2007 5:19am

I think you're being very arrogant. Like Dawkins, you're dismissive of anything that suggests a non-physical dimension to life. Sure, you "don't know" how acupuncture works. But there's a lot out there that you "don't know". Anomalous phenomena should be researched, not dismissed because it doesn't fit the current fashionable paradigm (= intellectual materialism).

Purushottama

August 14th, 2007 9:38am

As a ex- sceptic about Homoeopathy , if any one says that the system does not work , I can very well say it is utter non-sense. Either these people have not tried the system as such have no knowledge about it and now a days any one can write anything on any subject. Take a couple of the Homoeopathy book reproduce some of the content and then go on adding own so called scientific blah blah blah. Nevertheless in spite of all their efforts Homoeopathy patients are not going to be diverted but pity the people who believe in pseudo intellectuals who are good at writing a long prose but fail to realise the real poetry of life. They want us to believe that Science has reached its end and because present Science can not explain Homoeopathy they want the world to believe that Homoeopathy does not work ( may be until they discover some formula to demonstrate it under some other patented name by some MNC)!!!

Joshua

August 14th, 2007 12:21pm

Lee Jakeman and Purushottama, in the event that Neil Clark is struck down by a serious illness, I sincerely hope that you two will be able to persuade him against using Western medicine to effect a cure. In that way, you may be able to persuade Mr. Pollard that hom�opathy does indeed have some very valuable uses.

Louise Mclean

August 15th, 2007 6:31pm

When you actually draw up a chart of the planets' positions on a given day, time and place (latitude/longtitude)there is a huge amount of information to read in it - no two individual charts will be alike. The same goes for homeopathy - in that there is so much to study, it takes many many years to learn. People who know nothing whatsoever about these subjects think it acceptable to damn them. That to me is the height of stupidity and ignorance. By all means go and find out - have your chart done and its meaning read. Go to a homeopath and try homeopathy. Then if you still think astrology and homeopathy are rubbish, at least you are in a slightly more knowledgeable position.