Orac seems shocked that the University of Toronto is hosting a conference of autism kooks. Universities are not entirely benign institutions dedicated to honest scholarship — they have their fair share of grasping administrators who look for short term financial gain, and they are often beholden to wealthy donors who are usually more interested in chucking money into their favorite sport or other hobby horse, rather than serious intellectual endeavors. And more often than not, the biggest quacks are affiliated with the medical schools…not necessarily because doctors are suckers, but because the quacks are drawn to them, and want the authority of medicine.

Toronto might be getting an embarrassing one-shot show of pseudoscience, but I have to live with a university that has a Center for Spirituality and Healing. It’s bogus ‘therapies’, magical thinking, and sloppy inanity every day, all year round. And look! They’re bringing in Deepak Chopra in October!

It’s humiliating. If I were president of the university (something with no chance of ever happening), the first thing I would do is shut down that den of frauds.