Ninja Rants and Raves

Just had a shock! From DC’s Improbable Science article on “Quackademics in USA and Canada” I found out that the Natural History Museum in London promotes the pseudo-science and quackery of homeopathy. It’s bad enough with blithering Prince Charles et al doing the wacky talk, but to have an esteemed science institution doing the same is something that is hard to take! NHM, why oh why? And it also seems that the same homeopathic “practitioner” is also working with the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London. I don’t have the Kew details but it makes me shudder!

In previous articles I expressed a desire for critical thinking and the use of the scientific process (ie common sense!) to lead us to the truth. Have the NHM forgotten what true science is? Or are they just pandering (ie for money!) to the masses who blindly accept homeopathy despite all the real scientific evidence that indicate the falsity of homeopathy?

I’m going to think twice about providing monetary donations to the NHM when I next make my visit there as I do not want my money squandered on what has repeatedly been shown to be a lie. And that, my friends, hurts me the most as the NHM has provided me with good memories over the years. Somehow we must push back the ignorance that is being foistered on us all. I can’t believe that I’m going to quote Carl Sagan again so soon after my previous article but I feel compelled to do so:

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. - Carl Sagan

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. - Carl Sagan

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true. - Carl Sagan

Copyright © 2008 Kulvinder Singh Matharu - All Rights Reserved

A lot of people ask “What’s the harm with homeopathy?” After all, it’s only water. Homeopathy had its uses when it first started in the 18th centuary as the “treatment” generally caused less harm than the more traditional treatments at the time. But things are now different. Science has moved on and our knowledge has increased. Proper science-based treatments are very successful…not 100% successful as our knowledge is still growing and there’s still a lot to learn. But we’re getting there. I agree, though, that mistakes have been made in the past but hopefully such mistakes can be minimised.

The problem these days with so-called “alternative treatments” (and that’s a bit of a loose term that can be interpreted differently by different folks depending on their point of view or agenda) are mainly two-fold from an initial health perspective:

Firstly, some alternative treatments, such as homeopathy, may not, in themselves, cause direct harm but can stop people from seeking proper medical care. Such alternative treatments also include the “healing touch” of various religious scam artists in the US, UK, Europe and other parts of the world. This can and has lead to death.

Secondly, there are other alternative treatments which do cause direct harm.

There is also something else about that needs to be discussed. And that is the road to truth. Belief in untruths does not allow the human race to progress. Here are three quotes from Carl Sagan which are particularly relevant here:

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth - never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.”

Going back to the dangers of pseudo-science and alternative medicines. People can get caught up in the lies, and these can and have lead to suffering and death. Charlatans who promote these dangers are everywhere and it’s a worrying trend that they’re increasing. All I can do right now is  point people in the right direction and hopefully they can be positively influenced or help others to see the dangers.

A website www.whatstheharm.net has started recently started which I came across in an article by Skeptico earlier last week. What’s the Harm allows you to search for incidents where pseudo-science and alternative medicines have caused harm. The site also allows you to add you own stories. Hopefully such a resource will help to combat the increasing dangers, risks and ignorance wrought by pseudo-science, alternative medicines and, of course, the charlatans.

Copyright © 2008 Kulvinder Singh Matharu - All Rights Reserved

Well, just the other day I saw an episode of the BBC’s Horizon programme titled “How to make better decisions”. I nearly barfed! It wasn’t as bad as their “The Dark Secret of Hendrik Schön” episode but it certainly ranks as a very bad science programme.

I don’t want to say too much about the corny equations for decision making or the need to be organised and prepared.

But I do want to say something about the extraordinary claim that Horizon presented with regards to the “scientist” who stated that the human brain could sense the future (about 3 seconds in the future) using some unknown quantum mechanism. It was presented in a way that could lead a significant number of people to think it was all true, and the programme did not go into much detail about how the “scientific” tests were undertaken (eg randomness of the picture slides, use of sequences forming patterns, use of “double blind”tests…was the scientist aware of what the pictures were in advance and was he in the same room as the subject hence offering an unconscious transfer of information? etc).

As is commonly said these days, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And the evidence that Horizon presented was far from extraordinary…it was practically non-existent! No peer-review or independent duplication of experimental results were presented. And it’s been seen over the last few decades how easy it is for scientists to be fooled by so-called psychics and even for the scientists to fool themselves. The James Randi website is a good place to start research into this area. The claims and the lack of detail on the experiments undertaken had a certain “woo” about them. Look at http://www.watchingyou.com/woowoo.html for an idea of “woo” behaviour.

I’m not sure what Horizon were thinking. Their recent programmes have been far from impressive. For example, the recent episode “What on Earth is wrong with gravity?” presented by Dr Brian Cox took over twenty boring minutes to get near to the real point of the programme…that quantum theory likely holds the answers to a true understanding of gravity. Even the last twenty minutes of the programme was mostly window-dressing without much substance. Sigh. I really used to like Horizon but it just frustrates and disappoints these days.

Just noticed on the programmes credits at the end that they reference “The Institute of Noetic Sciences” which has a very questionable reputation and which is strongly associated to quackery. I’m not saying that the Institute is a quackery organisation only that there have been questions raised on the quality of their research. Do your own research and follow the evidence.

Just remember to use Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit from his wonderful book “The Demon Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark” as listed in my other article.

Copyright © 2008 Kulvinder Singh Matharu - All Rights Reserved