Sgt Badass
13th August 2007, 10:27 AM
I love it when Dawkins comes on telly. Some people just have to fall into the trap of trying to rescue their chosen profession from his glare. So, Neil Spencer at the Guardian has had a go:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2146775,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=science
Absolutely bloody hilarious.
Here are some highlights:
"There was the usual objection to astrology dividing people into 12 Sun signs, and my usual reply: that's eight more than the Myers-Briggs personality test used by commerce. Actually, astrology's basic personality types number 1,728."
HAHAHAH!!!!!! Honestly, I really need the toilet now.
Oh, and there's more:
"Homeopathy's supposed cures are, according to Dawkins, merely the result of the placebo effect. 'It's our own minds that cure the pain,' he concludes. How that explains why animals respond to homeopathy isn't confronted."
Oh stop!!! No, don't carry on, it's hurting!!!!
"The placebo effect is real enough, as any GP knows, but common sense and a wealth of personal testimony attest that there are other processes at work in treatments like homeopathy. For scientism, however, personal experience is not admissible. Everything must be subject to randomised, controlled double-blind trials, just like medical drugs - 'drugs that work' as Dawkins insists."
HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! So before those nasty scientists will believe something works, they ONLY HAVE TO GO AND PROVE IT!!! How unreasonable is THAT??!!!! ooo, nasty, nasty science.
"blah...blah...blah....This, let's remind ourselves, is the same benevolent pharmaceutical industry exposed by a 2003 Observer inquiry as routinely hoodwinking doctors with ghost-written articles about their products, a practice the editor of the British Journal of Medicine called 'a very big problem'."
Oh, I see: "Big pharma nasty, therefore, alternative medicine good". That's OK then, let's try some other crazy equations based on the same fluffy universe that Neil lives in shall we?
Errrm... "USA Government Policy bad, therefore, Taliban fighting to take over Afghanistan good". Exact same argument, i.e., bollox.
Oh, hang on, he provides another argument as if to ram home his own idiocy:
"There are frauds, scamsters and incompetents in the mind/body/spirit arena, but the same is true of applied science. Its assumed halo turns downright grubby when one considers its graduates' willingness to put ethics aside for questionable industrial practices - dowsers or chanters don't devise ever deadlier land mines."
See? Dowsers don't make land mines, therefore they can find water with bent coat-hangers.
The whole article is brilliant, in a 'how to write a crap article' kind of way, so you should read it because trust me, the woos will be sending links to all their spiritual friends as if this Neil fella as if he's found the ultimate argument against the Dawkmeister.
Oh, and a final quote : "It prefers to view humanity as a random accident"
Oh dear. Oh deary deary dear.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2146775,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=science
Absolutely bloody hilarious.
Here are some highlights:
"There was the usual objection to astrology dividing people into 12 Sun signs, and my usual reply: that's eight more than the Myers-Briggs personality test used by commerce. Actually, astrology's basic personality types number 1,728."
HAHAHAH!!!!!! Honestly, I really need the toilet now.
Oh, and there's more:
"Homeopathy's supposed cures are, according to Dawkins, merely the result of the placebo effect. 'It's our own minds that cure the pain,' he concludes. How that explains why animals respond to homeopathy isn't confronted."
Oh stop!!! No, don't carry on, it's hurting!!!!
"The placebo effect is real enough, as any GP knows, but common sense and a wealth of personal testimony attest that there are other processes at work in treatments like homeopathy. For scientism, however, personal experience is not admissible. Everything must be subject to randomised, controlled double-blind trials, just like medical drugs - 'drugs that work' as Dawkins insists."
HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! So before those nasty scientists will believe something works, they ONLY HAVE TO GO AND PROVE IT!!! How unreasonable is THAT??!!!! ooo, nasty, nasty science.
"blah...blah...blah....This, let's remind ourselves, is the same benevolent pharmaceutical industry exposed by a 2003 Observer inquiry as routinely hoodwinking doctors with ghost-written articles about their products, a practice the editor of the British Journal of Medicine called 'a very big problem'."
Oh, I see: "Big pharma nasty, therefore, alternative medicine good". That's OK then, let's try some other crazy equations based on the same fluffy universe that Neil lives in shall we?
Errrm... "USA Government Policy bad, therefore, Taliban fighting to take over Afghanistan good". Exact same argument, i.e., bollox.
Oh, hang on, he provides another argument as if to ram home his own idiocy:
"There are frauds, scamsters and incompetents in the mind/body/spirit arena, but the same is true of applied science. Its assumed halo turns downright grubby when one considers its graduates' willingness to put ethics aside for questionable industrial practices - dowsers or chanters don't devise ever deadlier land mines."
See? Dowsers don't make land mines, therefore they can find water with bent coat-hangers.
The whole article is brilliant, in a 'how to write a crap article' kind of way, so you should read it because trust me, the woos will be sending links to all their spiritual friends as if this Neil fella as if he's found the ultimate argument against the Dawkmeister.
Oh, and a final quote : "It prefers to view humanity as a random accident"
Oh dear. Oh deary deary dear.