The 84th Meeting of the Skeptic’s Circle

Unlike Jesus, the Skeptic’s Circle is back right on time.

The last two weeks the interweb has offered up some choice skeptical writings, and now the Skeptic’s circle is here to bring them all to you in one place.

Now, let’s embark on a look at everything having to do with pseudo-science, alternative medicine, theism, and the wrest of the woo.

Science

Since skepticism starts with science, it’s a good place to start the survey of new skeptical writings.

Evolving Thougts offers an interesting look at religion and science, discussing just how they are different.

Science is something nobody who is sane and informed can reject. Its epistemology is based on evidence and inference, and when it works it works, end of story. All human beings are forced to admit the truths that science has shown us. A couple of centuries ago, relatively recently in human history, the universe was a very small and very young place. Now it is understood to be ancient and enormous. No religion that denies these facts can survive in a reasonable environment.

The next article comes from the Blue Collar Scientist, who writes about a new theory which states that a Neo-Assyrian text talks about an asteroid impact that might never have actually happened.

The University of Bristol has a press release out yesterday reporting that a Sumerian clay tablet provides an account of an impact event at Köfels, Austria.

I call bullshit. Here’s why, starting with some background information.

I also want to note that Biblical Archaeology Review also has a link to an article that theorizes this same asteroid took a detour on its route to Austria and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. To quote the Blue Collar Scientist, “I call bullshit”.
The Blue Collar Scientist has something new to offer, the skeptical writings of Iatra Polygenos, a veterinarian who writes about “How to Kill a Dog”, which is thankfully not an instruction manual.

That’s when they mentioned the willow bark they’d given the dog, and it all became clear.

Finally, The Bug Girl presents her take on human pheromones after receiving an email about them.

Translation: we can make a chemical, and we can measure that it’s doing something. But we don’t know if this actually happens in day-to-day human life.

Medicine

Alternative and complementary medicine are some of the most prevalent forms of woo in the world today. So, it’s the next stop on the Skeptic’s Circle
The first post comes from Efirque over at Ecstathy, who finds some value in alternative medicine. It’s all about the placebos.

That is, I’d like to consider the possibility of the established medical fraternity co-opting the alternative medicine crowd (at least where the treatements are clearly harmless, like homeopathy) in order to take the fullest possible advantage of the placebo effect when it’s the most effective treatment available.

Dr. Martin over at Aardvarchaeology has an article about the dangers of anti-viral woo, which has lead to yet another outbreak of childhood measles.

The Austrian city of Salzburg has been hit by a measles outbreak among private-school children. Measles are no laughing matter, and thankfully outbreaks like these are rare in the West these days thanks to vaccination.

Lastly, Greta Christina offers up a personal appreciation for Western medicine, and defends against some of the generalizations thrown about by alternative fan proponents.

And contrary to one of the more popular misconceptions about conventional medicine, the doctor didn’t just send me home with a bag of drugs. She also sent me home with instructions to breathe steam; drink enormous amounts of fluids (especially tea); stay warm; not talk too much; and rest as much as I possibly could.

Theism and Atheism

The last two weeks have seen some interesting news on the subject of theism and atheism, and of course, the discussion around Expelled, the movie where Ben Stein talks about Nazis, continues to flourish, though the movie may not.
Pharyngula discusses Rep. Monique Davis and here recent anti-atheist rant.

Disbelief in religion means you have “no right” to speak to members of government? Wow. And note the “D” after her name — she’s a member of the party most (but definitely not all!) American atheists lean towards.

Steve Shives has put together an article about religious home schooling practices, and how they fail the children.

The area of study most affected by the Christian bent of homeschooling is science. The religion of the guy who wrote the textbook might not matter a whole lot when you´re studying geometry or reading Romeo and Juliet, but it comes into play in a big way when you hit high school-level biology. Homeschool parents who get their biology curriculum from sources like Apologia are not teaching their children science. They are giving them a Sunday School lesson.

At Free Thinking Joy, has put together an article discussing theism and skepticism from a child’s point of view.

I only see one possible escape out of this dilemma: God must be much simpler than the Universe, his superiority being just a matter of power, not complexity. To this I would answer that this notion is very familiar to me: As an evolutionist, I am very used to the notion of complex things arising from simple things. Only that I would not call this a creation.

Expelled:The Movie PZ Couldn’t See comes under more fire, this time in the form of a review of a review at the Bay of Fundie.

I don’t know about those last two, but “intellectually honest”?! Getting interviews under false pretenses is intellectually honest? Blaming the Holocaust on the fact that species evolve is intellectually honest? WTF, man! WTF?!

Continuing the discussion of Expelled: Why Ben Stein Loves Nazis, Greg Laden sent out a facebook post about the site ExpelledExposed, with the following text.

Friends — Please link to www.expelledexposed.com. Expelledexposed.com currently has much useful information on Expelled, and on April 15 will have even more. Spread the word so that whenever someone Googles Expelled, they also get expelledexposed! Thanks much.

Rolling with the Woo

Without woo and it’s practitioners, where would skeptics and Skeptic’s Circle be? This section looks at a little bit of those things that keep us going.
Providentia presents a history of the faith healer Valentine Greatrakes, AKA the Stroker.

These same words can apply to just about any other “healer” that has come along since Greatrakes’ time. Whenever a new healing marvel comes along, skeptics are still forced to deal with the cult of adoration that goes with it.

Fighting miracles is never easy.

PalMD, one of my favorite bacon loving bloggers, has put together a look at a modern faith healer, Jenny McCarthy, and her battle against autism. Stop by and visit the doctor at his new blog.

McCarthy buys into anti-vaccination movement, re-invents word “indigo”, subjects child to bizarre dietary regimen, proclaims him cured, doesn’t shut up about it.

The Skeptic’s Dictionary has a newly updated post on Richard M. Sternberg, the newest Christian martyr (though I don’t know if he meets all the requirements for the title).

While the journal is a peer-reviewed journal, Sternberg unilaterally selected Meyer’s paper for publication. Contrary to the journal’s standard editorial practice, no one else reviewed the paper for the journal. The Biological Society of Washington was appalled at Sternberg’s action

At Action Skeptics, Akusai has put together a very funny article dealing with the haunted items you can buy on Ebay, better get them before they’re gone.

Look, there’s a grave in the picture! This is some freaky shit! These people totally captured hard evidence on tape and CD and will sell it to you for only $.99 US. The best part is the almost-X-Files midi playing in the background, like a Geocities ghost page from 1996.

Continuing the fun, Zeno at Halfway There discusses the experience at a birthday party, where he discovered his secret calling as a medium.

Some of the cards were homemade, with inside jokes that had to be explained to the uninitiated. One of the homebrew cards, however, was more puzzling than the others. It passed from hand to hand while people pondered its obscure message. As luck would have it, I was sitting next to the author of the mystery card. He eagerly prompted me to try to figure out its obscure significance.

A potential crackdown on psychics is the topic of Podblack’s most recent submission to the Skeptic’s Circle. Unfortunately it seems to be restricted to the UK.

Urgh, don’t get me started on how this article has ‘psychics’ claiming that it’s their ‘religious belief‘ that somehow requires them to sell their ‘abilities’! There’s several examples in the article… but I can’t stomach posting their justifications.

Last but not least in this category is an article from the Bad Idea Blog, which tells of a school officials overreaction to a student doing something that couldn’t get him high.

Dr. Eric Lavonas says non-toxic markers like Sharpies, while pungent-smelling, cannot be used to get high.

Skeptic Media

The concluding section of this edition of the Skeptic’s Circle deals with the media.

Skelliot talks about Captain Disillusion and his work on YouTube debunking YouTube.

Basically, Cpt Disillusion makes debunk videos and posts them on youtube. But in a modern twist, he uses this chance, of a large young audience, to debunk other youtube videos that are in the spotlight. So far he has debunked things such as the penguin slap, the Haiti UFO and the “man on Mars”. He dedicates each episode to one topic and then, through the use of video manipulation and CGI know how, debunks each video!

Phil Plait also deals with skepticism on YouTube, offering a teaser of the TV show he is working on, The Skeptologists. Even though the title isn’t exactly a real word, I am very hopeful that something of scientific value might be coming to cable.

Also, if you want to support the show (and given how many people responded to the call for a transcriptionist, I see that y’all do!), you can send an email to skeptologists@newrule.com. You’ll get an automated reply, but we’re collecting emails to show networks that there is a demand for quality shows for intelligent people who don’t buy into all the nonsense being aired right now.

The Holford Watch blog offers a bit of a meta-discussion concerning blogging and the continued necessity of the mainstream media to keep scientifically accurate.

Neither the occasional science programme nor blogging can absolve the mainstream media of the need to provide high-quality science and health journalism.

The Holford Myths page discusses the continued coverage of Holford in the mainstream media. This certainly isn’t the only example of the mainstream media blindly accepting the non-scientific.

So, according to mainstream media, Holford is a scientist and reputable researcher, no matter how much verifiable evidence there is to the contrary. And despite his association with nonsense such as the Q-Link and food intolerance tests that remain unvalidated no matter what his claims to the contrary. And despite the biographical errors that marr his CV and raise questions about just how long he spent studying mental health and nutrition before he started to treat patients.

A similar point can be found over at Emerging Design, where the discussion focuses on a local paper that accepted the claim that drums can psychically heal the sick. Sounds like good news for all the punk rockers out there.

Drumming can heal physical woes? Really? If I called myself a journalist I think I would want some proof before stating something so absurd at the beginning of the article. Fanger doesn’t even offer up the usual caveat of “A Yuma woman claims….” That caveat is pretty much standard in modern journalism, but I guess it doesn’t apply to psychics.

Lastly, I want to point everyone over to Amazon, where Jaime Andres Pretell is taking on pseudo-history and pseudo-science at a grassroots level, by reviewing books that ignore the facts. Both video and text reviews are available, and I think its quite an admirable attempt to debunk the books that fool honest people.

They are not an import from another continent but direct descendants of the earliest Paleolithic people on the Asian continent who migrated to the Americas. Olmecs were products of the Americas.

So, we have come to the end of the 84th Skeptic’s Circle, and I hope everyone has enjoyed it. Remember to come back in two weeks to Andrea’s Buzzing About for the next addition, because I am sure the woo won’t stop between now and then.

Alternatively, if you have something to say, send a link to the next host, so that it can show up in the next Skeptic’s Circle.

If you would like to be a host in the future, stop by the Skeptic’s Circle’s site, and find a spot on the schedule.

Thanks to all of you out there who submitted to this edition.

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