One of the common tactics of believers in Young Earth Creationism, and devotees of Answers in Genesis, is to reply to statements about evolution with the question, “Were you there?” Ken Ham has been pushing this approach since at least 1989, and it’s dishonest horseshit, as I’ve explained at length.
It really is a stupid question, but now my eyes have been opened, as Roger Patterson of AiG explains exactly what the question is intended to do.
Jim Lippard brings up an example of a difficult phenomenon we’ve all encountered with increasing frequency in recent years, as atheism/skepticism have become ‘cool’ and more people jump on the bandwagon…but the problem has been here for a long time.
This is, I think, a good case study in how the problem of “affiliate fraud”–being taken in by deception by a member of a group you self-identify with–can be possible for skeptics, scientists, and other educated people, just as it is for the more commonly publicized cases of affiliate fraud within religious organizations.
The case is the story of Al Seckel, self-proclaimed physicist, molecular biologist, cognitive neuroscientist, research associate, colleague of Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, and Murray Gell-Mann, and who was none of those things, but managed to schmooze his way into persuading the skeptic community that he was all of them.
He sounds like a very interesting person, but not at all trustworthy. In the words of his second wife (maybe his current wife…it seems he’s always been a bit dodgy about these marriage and divorce things, too):
“And he was really sweet, and I enjoyed talking with him a lot. He’s really intelligent. He’s just a liar.”
Well worth a read, as a warning to us all.
I’ve been accused, occasionally, of being a pharma shill. Pharmaceutical companies make obscene profits! They’re paying off people to hide the dangers of their drugs! And there is a tiny grain of truth: those companies do reap great profits. Be the first to patent a Viagra or Zoloft, and the money will come rolling in.
But there’s so much investment required! You need to test thousands of drugs to find one that does anything; then there’s all the animal testing, the clinical trials, the regulatory oversight, the lawsuits that follow from side-effects (and if the drug is actually potent, there will be side-effects). No, that’s not for me. If I wanted to be really rich, and had no conscience at all, I’d go straight to Big Alt Med.
No testing! Cheap products! In the case of homeopathy, you can market tiny bottles of water! Supplements are almost entirely unregulated, nobody cares if you’re selling pills stuffed with sawdust. It’s miraculous sums of money for entirely non-miraculous garbage, plus a lot of promises.
Unbelievable. The BMJ hosted a written debate on homeopathy. The side for homeopathy blathers on about various studies and meta-analyses and mostly just vaguely suggests positive results; when they get specific, the best they can say is that homeopaths use fewer antimicrobials. And their summary is truly ignorant.
Doctors should put aside bias based on the alleged implausibility of homeopathy. When integrated with standard care homeopathy is safe, popular with patients, improves clinical outcomes without increasing costs, and reduces the use of potentially hazardous drugs, including antimicrobials.
We should set aside the fact that there is no mechanism to allow water to magically retain the power of non-existent molecules? I cannot do that, sir. I also cannot set aside the ludicrous rationales provided for the medical utility of plain old water, which suggest that homeopathic practitioners are gullible fools.
Shall I give you an example? Here’s one I’ve actually heard from atheists: “Christians don’t really believe in God, because the god idea is stupid. They only go to church because they’re afraid of death/need social reassurance/were brainwashed.” Another permutation of that is that since the god idea is stupid, the only people who believe in a god are the really stupid people.
It’s a somewhat popular sentiment because, face it, once you’ve seen the illogic of religion and become an atheist, it can be hard to understand how people can still fall for that baloney, and we struggle to make sense of their irrational decision. And then we come up with what seems a simple and obvious answer — nobody can seriously accept that zombie jesus/redemption by blood sacrifice crap, right? — that also has a kind of self-centered appeal (we must be the smart ones!) and it’s hard to resist.
I can tell Comic Con is going on, because suddenly the interwebs is full of leaked superhero movie trailers, gleeful enthusiastic fans, and transcripts of celebrity nerd panels. In this one, Joss Whedon gets asked that simple question, “What is the meaning of life?”, and he starts out well, but then screws up.
“You think I’m not going to, but I’m going to answer that. The world is a random and meaningless terifying place and then we all—spoiler alert—die.
Yes. There is no “meaning” of life. Grasp that, and a whole lot of things make sense. But stop! Don’t mess it up!
Why are “health” sites so full of shit? It’s getting to be the case that when I see “health” (or worse, “wellness”) in the title of an article, I have the same aversive reaction I get when I see the word “family”. It’s a good word that has been hijacked by loons.
The latest mania in the “health” community is the danger of reboiling water. I read this and was appalled at the basic misunderstandings in it.
Move over, iridology and acupuncture, now we can add pimple reading to the list of quack medicines. This person claims that the location of pimples on your face indicate deeper health problems.
I just learned that someone I know was at the Autism Society of America’s annual conference, and got to experience the joys of a major seizure, because the society allows quacks to be exhibitors. This particular quack, Bioharmonic Technologies
, was happily blasting attendees, a group they ought to have expected to consist of a large number of known non-neurotypical individuals, with their magic music. I had to look these guys up. You want to see New Age nonsense? They’ve got it for you.
A pastor tells his flock three things to ask an atheist. You don’t even have to read it to know that a lot of stupidity will follow. But I’m game, give it a shot, believers, and ask me those three things — I’ll try to answer through the incredulity and laughter.
