QualiaSoup explains why “claims” require the burden of proof.
The burden of proof
This is how we progress and remove chaff.
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
The burden of proof
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May 022012
Why do people believe in nonsense?
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Apr 052012
I think most of us know that homeopathy is nonsense, that it’s nothing more than a placebo. And I thought I’d heard all homeopathic nonsenses until I watched this:
Crazy Homeopathy Lady Charlene Werner Explains Physics
It’s almost as if she’s had a dose of woo from Deepak Chopra!
This raises an interesting question: Why do people believe in nonsense? The great Carl Sagan explored this many years ago in his book “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, and by Michael Shermer in several of his books such as “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time”.
It seems to me that people want to believe in something fantastical regardless of the weight of evidence that show that their beliefs just ain’t so. Is this a result of their upbringing, a failure to use tools such as common sense and critical thinking? Education is always important but we are unlikely to be totally free of wackos.
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
Jul 082010
Quackometer has written a well-thought and damning article on Doctor’s Data and Bogus Tests:
Carl Sagan said:
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.
And those who perpetuate known falsehoods, fraudsters if you will, drag society, drag science, drag progress and drag humankind into cesspool of darkness, ignorance and superstition. We need candles in the dark; resources such as QuackWatch and Quackometer provide that light.
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010
Small victory for science and common sense
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Aug 272008
The article University abandons homeopathy “degree” over at DC’s Improbable Science site explains how the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) dropped the “BSc” course on pseudoscience known as homeopathy.
However, it seems clear from Kate Chatfield’s e-mail and the clarification that DC provides that the e-mail is highly misleading and seems to demonstrate a lack of understanding of why homeopathy is not a subject that should be given degree status. Homeopathy, as a pseudoscience, abandons the scientific process and promotes unclear thinking…it opens the door to superstition.
Copyright © 2008 Kulvinder Singh Matharu – All Rights Reserved
The New Witch Doctors
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Jul 132008
I recently received some comments from a reader regarding my articles on homeopathy and my criticism of this pseudoscience. The reader asked if I had ever met anyone who had been treated using homeopathy and that I also should temper my vehemence; the implication being that homeopathy provided a valuable service which delivered positive results and comforted patients. My immediate reaction was that any perceived vehemence was misplaced especially in comparison to someone like PZ Myers! But the questions being raised on the value of homeopathy deserved debate.
After much consideration, I can only reinforce my opposition to the pseudoscience that is homeopathy and my exasperation at the idiocy of homeopathy’s support. Despite the claims made by the practitioners of homeopathy, there is no evidence that there is anything but a placebo at work. As a placebo, homeopathy will provide improvements for some patients within a very narrow band of illnesses. Simplistically, the benefits of positive thought. It certainly wouldn’t be able to successfully treat illnesses such as malaria for example.
The statements made by homeopaths explaining the mechanisms of how homeopathy is allegedly claimed to work have been shown to be incorrect. Yet homeopaths are unable to accept this. They have abandoned critical thinking and have deluded themselves into accepting the extraordinary when all credible evidence shows that their claims are without foundation.
So why should I care? Why should we all care? After all, the placebo effect certainly provides some benefits to some people. I’ll tell you why.
By accepting homeopathy we make it difficult to demonstrate to society the benefits of critical thinking. Without critical thinking we are saying that it’s OK to accept extraordinary claims without evidence; that it’s OK to accept pseudoscience, to accept astrology, to accept perpetual-motion machines. In short, that it’s OK to be bamboozled.
Our enlightenment, our knowledge, striving to seek the truth; this is what advances us. And critical thinking is the most powerful tool to achieve that. Without it we will be burdened by superstition and witch doctors.
Copyright © 2008 Kulvinder Singh Matharu – All Rights Reserved