Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
This is a story about homeopathy, or to be a tad more precise, is a story about the deployment of homeopathy that illustrates how the embrace of the idea is not just bizarre but also absurd. Rabid Dogs and Homeopathy The Washington Post reports it as follows … A Canadian naturopath claims she treated a … Read moreHomeopathy: Treating 4 year old with saliva of a rabid dog
Homeopathy is having a very bad week. Given the observation that there is no credible evidence that verifies that it actually works, then this is not a surprise. This week there have been two Homeopathy items that have popped up in the news cycle. Let’s briefly cover each in turn. The UK’s National Health Service is … Read moreHomeopathy cancer paper withdrawn, lead authors arrested
Radio Canada Internation reports the reactions being made by many in response to a new course that offers to train you in quackery. They are not alone, other have deployed similar criticism. The course on offer is Homeopathy … Starting this fall, Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario, will offer a diploma in homeopathy, a practice the critics … Read moreThere is a new college degree in quackery
The US Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on the selling of snake oil. If indeed homeopathy only consisted of a herbal tea or two to help alleviate a cold, then they would not have been too concerned, but unfortunately the landscape has changed and so they have been forced to respond to the … Read moreFDA cracks down on Homeopathy
The news is that the UK’s publicly funded National Health Service has blacklisted Homeopathy and also Herbal remedies. Now, you might be tempted to think that they have finally decided to pay attention to the evidence that clearly demonstrates that it simply does not work at all … right? Nope, that is not the driving force … Read moreUK NHS is blacklisting Homeopathy and Herbal remedies
I’m building up to a point here about the “appeal to an authority” fallacy. What comes next is there to be used to illustrate this, so stick with me for a bit. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is the Nobel prize winning Biologist who won the Nobel prize in 2009 jointly with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath, “for studies … Read moreAppeal to Authority … is this really a fallacy?