Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Unproven Medicine- Enemies of Reason Part 2


Professor Richard Dawkins is having the structure of his DNA altered by a healer named Elisis, who lives in Glastonbury.
Elisis makes little hurdy-gurdy motions with her hands, gives a sharp intake of breath and, hey presto, Dawkins' DNA is restored to the levels we used to enjoy when we all lived in Atlantis.
I know what you're thinking, the Prof tells us. You were expecting a serious debate about alternative medicine and here's Richard Dawkins picking on an easy target.
No, what I'm actually thinking is that I could charge people £140 a day like Elisis does just by waggling my hands!
In The Irrational Health Service - the very watchable second part of his look at the war between superstition and science - Dawkins argues that alternative medicine should more properly be called Unproven Medicine.
And he's particularly scathing about homeopathy which is available on the NHS, forcing, he says, taxpayers to fork out for other people's gullibility.
As you'd expect, Dawkins puts his case calmly, rationally and politely. So it must have been a bit sick-making when he discovers a perfectly logical, scientific reason why some of this hocus-pocus actually works. (from Mirror)
(the first part is posted here)

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