Following up on my adventures in Yahoo! Answers.
I got an email (below the break):
Down in the trenches
April 15, 2008 at 3:05 am (alternative medicine, rant, skepticism, utopia)
In this context, for me, the trench is the Alternative Medicine section of Yahoo!Answers.
Why am I doing this? Do I really hate myself that much? Do I really think I can convert anyone?
I’m doing this because I am sick of sitting back on my laurels and pooh-poohing this stuff from my little private Skeptopia. Skeptopia is a land where many skeptics live. It’s a safe place where skeptics get together and pat each other on the back for being so clever. It’s not just here, most of the other skeptic forums and blogs have become Skeptopias. I’ve built my own Skeptopia here so I can talk about how clever I am, and if anyone flames me I can delete their comment and pretend they don’t exist. It gets boring sometimes, ridiculing dumb ideas and patting myself on the back is starting to give me shoulder cramp. In the end, how does it help anyone or change anything if I stay in my safe little world?
I was looking for more information about GNC’s iridology offer and I ran across this section of Yahoo! Answers and it was just the place I think I need to be. It’s not a site people go to in order to find answers refuting alternative medicine claims, it’s a place where they go to have them confirmed or to get advice. There is a lot of bad information going around there, from folk remedies to advice on the best chiropractic schools, but I noticed that there are a few skeptics too. People linking to quackwatch, people giving glib negative answers. All morning, I’ve been researching answers and trying to provide detailed, informed answers to questions by seriously curious people. It’s not the people who are already clearly wrapped up in alternative medicine that I target, it’s the people with serious questions who are just interested in learning more who I think need good information.
I don’t just tell people to go to a doctor. I don’t tell people that they are stupid or that such-and-such is simply nonsense. I try to provide simple explanations of the science involved and I make suggestions that they might be better off looking for other alternatives. Basically, I try to answer the question as best I can without judgment or prejudice
Maybe it doesn’t make a lick of difference. I’ll get back to you once people start rating my answers.
GNC offering iridology
April 15, 2008 at 12:24 am (rant, skepticism)
Iridology is one of the biggest crackpot ideas I’ve ever encountered. It’s a form of alternative diagnostics that is completely unscientific, easy to disprove and is about as useful as palmistry. Furthermore, it doesn’t even diagnose what you currently have, but often claims to predict conditions that you may develop in the future, which you can’t falsify until the practitioner has already collected her money. It is often paired with homeopathy, so you can treat conditions you don’t have with medicines that don’t exist
I walked past my local GNC outlet and noticed a huge sign in the window offering iridology consultations. What the hell is up with GNC? They prey on people’s superstition and need for a competetive edge and perfect health by selling unproven supplements, ridiculously high doses of vitamins and fake alternative medicines. Now iridology? What’s next? Free tarot readings every full moon? It just goes to show that it’s not just patchouli scented hippies who fall for alternative medicine. Spandex clad gym rats are shelling out big bucks for placebos too.
Side note: It’s funny how tacking the suffix “-ology” can make something sound completely legit.
From Beyond
April 12, 2008 at 3:54 pm (skepticism)
Tags: afterlife, converse, death, granny, grief, leukemia, valentine's day
Two days ago I received an envelope in the mail.
Inside was a Valentine’s Day card “To My Granddaughter”
Both of my grandmothers are deceased.
Inside of the touching and pre-written card it was signed, “I love you, Granny”
Also enclosed inside of the card was a small printed note from my (living) father explaining that he had found this pre-signed card in some papers of my Granny’s that he had been sorting through.
Last year, for the last three days of my Granny’s life, I held her hand as leukemia ebbed the life from her. Even after she slipped into a coma, I held her hand. I was the person to whom she spoke her last words.
That card shattered me.
I miss her terribly. I was her only granddaughter.
Mostly, what I miss was the fact that even in her last moments of consciousness, she laughed. She had a sense of humor and fun that kept her laughing to the last. She told stories and she loved to hear stories. I could make her laugh and she really loved to laugh.
She also loved my red Converse All Stars. Every time I wear them, I think of her and how they made her smile. She had a huge smile that seemed to take up her whole face. That woman was all teeth. I wish I had her wide, full mouth, but I definitely got the teeth. Big, tall teeth all crammed into my little mouth.
I’m not the kind of person to draw meaningful connections between meaningless coincidences, but I’d been wearing her opal ring for a few days when I got that card. And today I got some good news. I can see how it would be comforting to imagine that she’s watching over me, letting me know that good things were coming. That thought makes me feel good, even though I know she’s gone and it’s just my imagination.
I’m wearing my red Converse All Stars now.
I guess Hollywood got something right, for once
April 2, 2008 at 11:08 pm (rant)
The other night I watched American Beauty again for the first time in a long time. Apart from the metaphysical and religious-y overtones *eyeroll*, I still find the movie very beautiful and poignant. However, I mentioned at one point to my husband that I didn’t prescribe to the notion that homophobic men are secretly suppressing their own homosexual desires. It’s too easy. It just always seemed like the kind of petulantly adolescent thing that you’d say to piss off your homophobic uncle.
Well slap my mouth and call me Wrongy McWrong. Today I read about this study in which it is found that self described homophobic men are aroused by homoeroticism and non-homophobic men are not. The homophobes actually get a chubby from watching two dudes get it on. I wouldn’t call the study definitive, but it’s fairly straightforward (pardon the pun) and well designed.
Man, Fred Phelps seriously must be at full salute when he goes on his fag-hating tirades. Ew.
Axiraphism
April 2, 2008 at 5:51 am (atheism, just for fun, skepticism)
An example of skepticism gone a bit too far.
Today I look at two sides of Christianity.
April 2, 2008 at 1:05 am (Uncategorized)
Thanks to Neatorama I found a little bit of joy in Stuff Christians Like.
It brings back all kinds of fun memories for me. Anyone who grew up protestant and American can probably relate, but I’m sure there are Catholics and non-Americans who will get some of it. Man, oh man. Christian camp, Vacation Bible School, Youth Group, Sunday School, Catholic School, various Church events… it all came flooding back.
Thanks to John I got to take a sneak peek at the Creation Museum.
Oh dear… I just… can’t…believe it. It made my brain hurt. Lots. Now lately I’ve been wanting to shy away from belittling people’s beliefs, but this is just..so…insulting. They take Biblical mythology, dress it up in a labcoat and glasses and call it scientific. I mean, there are all of the trappings of a very beautiful and well presented natural history museum, but all of the placards present these silly biblical justifications as “science”. They even pretend to be egalitarian by showing the “Human Reason” explanation (often with errors and misunderstandings) next to the “God’s Word”. Some of the “God’s Word” explanations I just can’t make heads or tails of. It’s truly baffling.
Like, apparently, “Biblical history is the key to understanding dinosaurs.” You hear that, paleontologists??
Ugh, I need to go lie down now. Or maybe go back to the good memories of being a Christian.
Yeah… Church camp… youth group…
