Is it okay to make fun of homeopathy? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mikhail
- Start date
Some stuff, e.g. willow bark for pain relief, has some basis in reality - the chemical in paracetamol is in the bark naturally - but it's not homeopathy, which is all about the diluting stuff beyond all reason.
I think a lot of people confuse homeopathy with alternative medicine. It's just one part of it, and IMO the most ridiculous part.
Yeah, that's my position too.
Though I am the guy who voted that he was an atheist homeopath.
Yes, it is a classic placebo, and that effect can be very powerful against some problems. However, modern medicine has a problem with the placebo effect because medical ethics call for informed consent - you have to tell people you're giving them a placebo, which doesn't go down well! There's definitely an interesting debate to be had about the place the placebo effect has in modern medicine, but homeopaths are defrauding the sick people who come to them, and often make claims far beyond what the evidence supports, like the malaria cure I mentioned earlier.
I think this article is both terrifying and relevant:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/13/simon-singh-british-chiropractic-association
I think a lot of people confuse homeopathy with alternative medicine. It's just one part of it, and IMO the most ridiculous part.
Yeah, that's my position too.
Though I am the guy who voted that he was an atheist homeopath.
Yes, it is a classic placebo, and that effect can be very powerful against some problems. However, modern medicine has a problem with the placebo effect because medical ethics call for informed consent - you have to tell people you're giving them a placebo, which doesn't go down well! There's definitely an interesting debate to be had about the place the placebo effect has in modern medicine, but homeopaths are defrauding the sick people who come to them, and often make claims far beyond what the evidence supports, like the malaria cure I mentioned earlier.
I think this article is both terrifying and relevant:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/13/simon-singh-british-chiropractic-association