One of my biggest pet peeves is use of the so-called “Appeal to Nature” fallacy. I dare say its has conned and confused more suckers than any other marketing gimmick in the last decade.
As a was driving into work this morning, I heard an ad for Poyz Calming Dog Treats that went above and beyond merely claiming to be “safe, all-natural” like typical marketing.
Here’s what they said:
Our product is all-natural, so you know it’s safe and non-addictive!
All natural and safe, just like atropine and digitalis, right?
All natural and non-addictive, just like coca leaves, opium poppies, tobacco, and ethanol?
Point made, hopefully.
So the Twin Cities Creation “Science” Association (quotes added for effect) hosts an annual “science” fair for home-schooled children. Their website has a list of possible project ideas which makes for comedy gold:
3. Make a computer model of the Flood currents.
This is just an awesome request to make to a 7th grader. First, assume a global flood happened. Then, assume you have a PhD in fluid dynamics. Finally, assume you have accurate flood data to model it.
8. How much voltage or current can a human take before he is killed? Could do experiments on a plant.
What? Why would you want to know how much current (not voltage) it takes to kill a human? This is quite an odd desire. Second, if you’re going to test it out don’t lame out of it by testing your hypothesis on a plant. At least try a mammal like a puppy or a monkey if you want to live out your sadistic fantasies.
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Yes, this update comes right after I posted. It’s simply too large not to share with you. I’ll let Paul take it from here:
Dear Matt,
But Hitler actually killed others for his faith in evolution! Did you know he had a “Bible,” but this one actually scorns the book most people think of when the word, Bible, is mentioned, for in Hitler’s “Bible” we read these words: “we have long discarded the Adamic theory that man is descended from a single pair, created a few thousand years ago in a mythical Garden of Eden somewhere in Asia, to spread later over the earth in successive waves.”
The real Holy Bible also contrasts with Hitler’s “Bible” on the sanctity of human life. The true Bible forbids murder and upholds the sanctity of human life, but this is not so in Hitler’s “Bible”:
This is so long the rest can be found after the jump.
UPDATE: The conversation continues here.
Evidently my post yesterday about Sarah Palin’s creationist tendancies landed highly on google for anybody searching “Sarah Palin + creationist”. Yesterday, my view count more than quadrupled as a result.
As I should have expected, the crazies also come out of the woodwork. Paul Humber is some guy from Philadelphia that runs a ministerial organization which focuses on the “5 CR’s” according to his website:
1. CRT (which stands for Christian Released Time).
2. CREATOR (promoting the doctrine of Creation and Creator Christ).
3. CROSS (promoting evangelism and preaching).
4. Child Rescue (supporting Pro-Life efforts).
5. Challenging Racism (fostering unity within the human family).
I won’t link to his website as I can’t promise the integrity of any of the shared files contained within, and it’s not above a creationist to sink to dirty tactics to spread a message. More after the jump.
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Categories: hatemail, pseudoscience Tags: astrologists, creationists, Evolution, flat earth, geocentrism, lunacy, Paul Humber, sarah palin, tripe, young earth
In case you’ve been living without internet, tv, radio, or telephones up until now, you’ve no doubt heard about first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s selection as McCain’s VEEP. It’s hard to find details on where she stands on various subjects as she’s a relative unknown in the national circuit. However, the good folks at Afarensis did a little investigating back in 2006 when she was running for governor.
What they found, unfortunately, is that the potential vice president is a tried and true creationist:
“Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.”
Sarah, I’ll support teaching creationism in public school science classes the day you support teaching evolutionary biology in Sunday school classes.
I stand firm that creationists aren’t fit to hold any position higher than assistant manager at Burger King; especially not a position a heartbeat away from President of the United States (Note: I don’t even want to know McCain’s position on this).
Near Death experiences.
Misleading “studies”.
The drama! The suspense! The Woo Woo Train is back, people!
A lot of hype has recently surrounded a story about a British ICU nurse named Penny Sartori who wrote a book claimed by woowooists as well as the author to be an academic study of near death experiences. How do we know it’s an academic study? Why, because that’s the title of the book: Near Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients, a Five Year Clinical Study.
The title sounds plausible enough, however the first red flag for you astute readers should be the fact that she elected to publish a book– a book currently retailing for $160.00, mind you– instead of publishing to an actual peer-reviewed journal. Bypassing normal mechanisms of science in order to rake in the cash is exactly the sort of thing that qualifies her for a first-class ticket on the Woo Woo Train, but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and let her work stand or fall on its own merits.
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Categories: pseudoscience Tags: hard science, hospital, ICU, intensive care, NDE, near death experiences, nursing, out of body experiences, peer reviewed journal, Penny Sartori, pseudoscience, red flag, sartori, theory, Woo Woo Train
All aboard the Woo Woo Train!
In part one I touched on many different issues involved in nursing that bothered me as a rational guy. Today, I want to discuss one specific issue: Energy Fields.
Yes, energy fields. Auras. Chi. It’s all junk and it’s all pseudoscience that shouldn’t be associated in any capacity with a supposedly evidence based science-backed profession such as nursing. Yet, not only are there nurses who espouse such beliefs, energy field disturbances are actually included as a NANDA approved nursing diagnosis! Don’t believe me? Here’s the relevant page from Nursing Diagnosis, 11th Ed. More after the jump.
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Recently, there has been a movement within nursing towards evidence-based practice. What this means, essentially, is that we use reason and evidence (duh?) to base our care on and not tradition and superstition. If you don’t know me by now, I like this trend. It’s nice and science backed.
What scares me is that the day evidence-based nursing propagates will never come. If you browse any of the forums at allnurses.com, you’ll find threads talking about ghosts, spirits, demons, angels, homeopathy, vaccine hysteria, psychiatry is quackery, psychic predictions, creationism, and more.
To say that the overall picture is depressing would be an understatement. These are supposed to be educated, scientifically-backed healthcare professionals, yet their collective grasp on reality is tedious at best.
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