Sue Young Homeopathy

So, we now have agreement that abuse is not debate! What a victory!

Professor Colquhoun has taken legal advice to ensure that his blog ‘adopts the right tone‘, because he made ‘defamatory‘ remarks about herbalism. I wonder how much that legal advice from Queens Counsel cost, and I would make the point that he was lucky to have access to enough funds to pay for it. I hope people remember that this is the privilege of the 10% and not for the many?

A more sensible tone is creeping in to the debate now the abusive onslaught has ejaculated and lost its initial power.

This quote is useful: “I find it amazing that, in this day and age, so many humans believe that scientific consensus equals fact. If I have to cite examples of the fallacy of that belief, then I would be wasting my time. If you cannot read history and extrapolate, then you do not have the ability to understand that science should be skeptical of everything. To condemn homeopathy because you do not know how it works, does in no way prove or disprove the efficacy of a remedy applied according to the rules of homeopathy. Pseudo skeptics have the common blind spot of believing that if a majority of experts believe in something, then that something must be true, almost as if truth were an absolute.”

So often fundamentalists use the old argument â€œWe canâ€™t explain it, so it canâ€™t be trueâ€. Since when did this stop ’science’? They can’t explain gravity, but they can demonstrate its effect and so they researched it until they did (sort of). They can’t explain how paracetamol works so they manufacture vast amounts and sell it, why? Because they know it works and it will make then vast amounts of money (what price proof here?). They know mercury is a poison in large amounts so they fill our children’s teeth with it. They know fluoride is dangerous in large amounts, so they manufacture it and use trace amounts to ‘benefit’ our health (isn’t that a homeopathic principle?) They have known for years that salt is dangerous in large amounts, so they add far too much to our food, such that we have to have a TV campaign to get them to withdraw it. They also know that sugar is dangerous in large amounts so they add far too much to our food such that we have a massive obesity problem. They know that sugar substitute is dangerous, so they sell it all around the world? How does ’science’ answer this? Why are they so vexed about the dangers of alternative medicine when they have sat back and said nothing to all of this?

So why does orthodoxy apply ’science’ to their chosen phenomena and chosen substances and to pharmaceuticals and vehemently exclude alternative medicine? Do you think it has something to do with the means of production and the profits they can potentially make? It is not possible for them to make huge profits out of alternative medicine, so of course it must be banned! Is this what they call ‘science’? Is this what they call ‘Public Health’?

No one objects to proper debate. This may ultimately lead to some healthy understandings and of course people have the right to question everything. However, when big money gets behind profits, debates become skewed, ’science’ becomes a slave and heresy becomes fashionable yet again. Does no one learn anything from history anymore?

The vehemence of the abuse defaming alternative medicine far too often takes on the hysterical screeching of the ‘I know I am right brigade’ who advocate a one size fits all ideology, and such beliefs are fueled by ‘poor science’ that uses magicians to defame reputable scientists who do try and investigate alternative medicine. The message went out clear as a clarion call all around the World. Do research into alternative medicine and we will hunt you down and destroy you!

And this is what they call ’science’?

‘There is no scientific evidence that alternative medicine works’. Opponents of alternative medicine repeat this tired old phrase again and again, round and round, over and over like some sort of mantra. Is it any wonder that the research follows the money? Is it any wonder that scientific research cannot conduct such studies without attracting ignorant abuse? Personally, I do not call this ’science’. I call it a witch hunt. I am proud of science for all the good it has done, but I am ashamed of poor science, pseudoscience and ’science’ used to perpetrate lies and disinformation. And let’s not forget poor journalism, which has always whipped up such abuse without any clear understanding of - well of anything except headlines and regularly uses abusive attacks to get them.

Decent people make a World all of their own, which is the World I choose to live in. So here’s a cheer for all the wonderful scientists out there who do not sit on this slippery slide just to get funds from big money to prove dubious facts. Here’s to all the wonderful journalists out there who believe in their profession and serve us so well. Here’s to Alternative Medicine which holds its head up high and argues its corner with integrity despite the powerful and dangerous forces arraigned against them.

Here’s to integrity, to truth and real science, real journalism and real debate and to the future!

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