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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

An embarrassing critique of “The Enemies of Reason”

A couple of weeks ago, before I went on vacation, the BBC aired a two-part documentary by Richard Dawkins entitled The Enemies of Reason. Part One dealt primarily with the paranormal and various New Age phenomena, while Part Two, which aired mere days before my London trip, dealt squarely with alternative medicine in an uncompromising […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The more things change…

John is sick and tired of antievolutionists. Who can blame him? As he points out, they are utterly immune to evidence or reason: I was wrong. Very wrong. Information isn’t what makes people change their minds. Experience is, and generally nobody has much experience of the facts of biology that underwrite evolution. The so-called “deficit […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Superstition ain’t the way

An excellent op-ed article by Michael Fitzpatrick characterizes quite well the hysterical fear based on no evidence that Andrew Wakefield and his accomplices started in the U.K. over the MMR vaccine and the unfounded claim that it causes autism and bowel disorders: The rise of a combination of extreme scepticism towards established sources of authority […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

If you think it’s just about mercury when it comes to vaccines, you’re wrong

Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he’s rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on July 20, 2005. This one seems downright prescient as I read it again. […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

More evidence that alternative medicine boosters don’t really want scientific evaluation of their therapies

Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he’s rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on December 27, 2005. Enjoy! Since the very beginning of this blog, I’ve said […]