Homeopathic A&E

Best anti-homeopathy poster ever?

link from here

YowZaa! Indulgences are back

This is too nutty for words - the Roman Catholic church is bring back "indulgences", you know, one of those crazy ideas of purchasing forgiveness that helped spark the reformation.

The Church has done so many crazy things lately I could nearly keep a blog just pointing them out but this one really made me slap my head. Even the recent business of offending every Jew and 'fact based' person on the planet didn't really surprise me.

What's next? Geocentricism?

thanks to Pharyngula for the link.

'The Secret' 1 confirmed case of it working

'The Secret' is that stupid book about ... well ... stupidness, but here is actual testimony of it _really_ working. Amazing!

Please allow me to share with you how "The Secret" changed my life and in a very real and substantive way allowed me to overcome a severe crisis in my personal life. It is well known that the premise of "The Secret" is the science of attracting the things in life that you desire and need and in removing from your life those things that you don't want. Before finding this book, I knew nothing of these principles, the process of positive visualization, and had actually engaged in reckless behaviors to the point of endangering my own life and wellbeing.
At age 36, I found myself in a medium security prison serving 3-5 years for destruction of government property and public intoxication. This was stiff punishment for drunkenly defecating in a mailbox but as the judge pointed out, this was my third conviction for the exact same crime. I obviously had an alcohol problem and a deep and intense disrespect for the postal system, but even more importantly I was ignoring the very fabric of our metaphysical reality and inviting destructive influences into my life.
My fourth day in prison was the first day that I was allowed in general population and while in the recreation yard I was approached by a prisoner named Marcus who calmly informed me that as a new prisoner I had been purchased by him for three packs of Winston cigarettes and 8 ounces of Pruno (prison wine). Marcus elaborated further that I could expect to be anally raped by him on a daily basis and that I had pretty eyes.
Needless to say, I was deeply shocked that my life had sunk to this level. Although I've never been homophobic I was discovering that I was very rape phobic and dismayed by my overall personal street value of roughly $15. I returned to my cell and sat very quietly, searching myself for answers on how I could improve my life and distance myself from harmful outside influences. At that point, in what I consider to be a miraculous moment, my cell mate Jim Norton informed me that he knew about the Marcus situation and that he had something that could solve my problems. He handed me a copy of "The Secret". Normally I wouldn't have turned to a self help book to resolve such a severe and immediate threat but I literally didn't have any other available alternatives. I immediately opened the book and began to read.
The first few chapters deal with the essence of something called the "Law of Attraction" in which a primal universal force is available to us and can be harnessed for the betterment of our lives. The theoretical nature of the first few chapters wasn't exactly putting me at peace. In fact, I had never meditated and had great difficulty with closing out the chaotic noises of the prison and visualizing the positive changes that I so dearly needed. It was when I reached Chapter 6 "The Secret to Relationships" that I realized how this book could help me distance myself from Marcus and his negative intentions. Starting with chapter six there was a cavity carved into the book and in that cavity was a prison shiv. This particular shiv was a toothbrush with a handle that had been repeatedly melted and ground into a razor sharp point.
The next day in the exercise yard I carried "The Secret" with me and when Marcus approached me I opened the book and stabbed him in the neck. The next eight weeks in solitary confinement provided ample time to practice positive visualization and the 16 hours per day of absolute darkness actually made visualization about the only thing that I actually could do. I'm not sure that everybody's life will be changed in such a dramatic way by this book but I'm very thankful to have found it and will continue to recommend it heartily.

from an amazon review

Everything is recycleable

Skeptico has a load of new posts since I last checked his blog but I really liked this one.

It seems a wireless internet network in Glastonbury is being blame (by some) for all sorts of illnesses, but an enterprising woopert has developed a solution

Matt Todd, […] has started building small generators which he believes can neutralise the allegedly-harmful radiation using the principles of orgone science. The pyramid-like machines use quartz crystals, selenite (a clear form of the mineral gypsum), semi-precious lapis lazuli stones, gold leaf and copper coil to absorb and recycle the supposedly-negative energy.

Skeptico's golden response?

That’s what I like about new agers today. They don’t just want to get rid of the negative energy, they want to recycle it. This is sustainable woo!

I loved that!

Teacher Fired for Being a Wizard

An oft used excuse by the religious is the "what's the Harm" defense, implying that religion has no negative side effects and is actually a comfort to people. Here is an excellent example of the harm it causes - specifically, people actually believe it and act incredibly stupid as a result;

[Florida] Right in front of his classroom at Rushe Middle School, substitute teacher Jim Piculas – evidently carried away with an attack of the crazies – did a 30-second magic trick last week in which a toothpick disappeared, then reappeared. Damn! He was promptly fired. Yes, Rushe's principal requested that Piculas be dismissed. And the official charge from the school district that resulted in his discharge? Wizardry!

link

More on Mecca Time

A friend sent me this link to a BBC article about Mecca time. Obviously I think they're nuts but I'm not alone. According to the article;

But the movement is not without its critics, who say that the notion that modern science was revealed in the Koran confuses spiritual truth, which is constant, and empirical truth, which depends on the state of science at any given point in time. [my bold]

Is this what passes for criticism? Are these the only critics? The BBC should fire the journalist if this is the only criticism he could find for such loony notions.

In effect what this quote is saying is that the computer I'm typing this on may, at some point in the future, stop working due to the state of science. But, revealed "truth" (you know, believing in magic) is like π or something (which, as everyone whose read the Bible knows, is 3).

The Madness of Certainty Continues

Reads like a joke but it's actually real.

SPEAKERS at a Doha conference on Mecca's importance said that the holy city, not Greenwich, should become the reference point for world time, reigniting an old controversy that started some four decades ago.

A group of Islamic scholars presented on Saturday "scientific evidence" to prove that Mecca was the core of that the zero longitude passes through the holy city and not through Greenwich in the UK.

Greenwich in England has been the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) since 1884. GMT is sometimes called Greenwich Meridian Time because it is measured from the Greenwich Meridian Line at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Greenwich is the place from where all time zones are measured.

In a clear support for the call, Islamic scholar Yousuf al-Qaradawi said Islam, "unlike other religions, never contradicted science".
The participants recommended the unification of the time in the Arab world to the time in Mecca instead of Greenwich. They also called the Arab governments to abandon the new world maps "because they are forged to serve Western interests."

I love the ignorance on display here - they have "scientific evidence" that an imaginary line run through Mecca! I guess that means Ley lines run though it too, that the magnetic field is slightly stronger (or weaker) and that, occasionally, the sun dances in the sky.

link

The Great Tantra Challenge

In a nutshell, voodoo guy claims he can kill by magic, friendly atheist volunteers, hilarity ensures.

http://www.rationalistinternational.net/article/2008/20080310/en_1.html

On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. That was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment. After all his chanting of mantra (magic words) and ceremonies of tantra failed, the tantrik decided to kill Sanal Edamaruku with the “ultimate destruction ceremony” on live TV. Sanal Edamaruku agreed and sat in the altar of the black magic ritual. India TV observed skyrocketing viewership rates.

Homeopathic Drugs found in US Drinking Water

Via Skeptico comes this story;

Despite multiple testing scenarios, and despite using the most advanced and sensitive equipment available, we were not able to find even one molecule of the homeopathic remedies in any of the tap water samples we examined. While this would not be a problem with allopathic medicines, homeopathic remedies are stronger the more dilute they are. This means that samples of water we tested containing zero molecules of, for example Arsenicum Album, would be potentized at the maximum strength possible, and as such could present real risks to the American public who would be unknowingly consuming these powerful homeopathic drugs.

A little good news

Good news in todays London Independent - Homeopathy 'in crisis' as NHS trusts drop services, it s a drop in the ocean I suppose but it's still good news.

NHS trusts are dropping homeopathic treatments following debate over whether they work. A study has found that only 37 per cent of 132 primary care trusts still have contracts for homeopathic services while more than a quarter have stopped or reduced funding in the past two years.