after pulling apart religion by reason, common sense and science richard dawkins now turns his attention to 'new age therapies'. along with conspiracy theories he has a new programme to be aired later this month in which he exposes the enourmous flaws in these theories and notions.

 

GOOD!

 

the world doesnt run on faith, or hope, but on quantifiable scientific data. i for one will be looking forewards to this show.

'the enemies of reason'... ch4 next monday, 8pm

Religion is out of the game, in UK less then 8% of the people practice any religion, christianity is ruled out in the modern western world, and islam only grows because of immigration (and not local conversions). However, if you look at tabloids and magazines, you see things such as horoscope, re-incarnation, numerology and other esoteric beliefs are still very popular. In a recent poll it showed that in UK, the percentual of people who believe in spirits is bigger then the percentual of people that believe in God. So I don´t think people have become more rational, they only trade the idea of heaven/hell to infinite re-incarnations, and God/Joevah for a number of spirits and mystical forces that run the universe... How to explain astrology? If planets and stars dictate what happens in our life, then the Universe itself is some type of governing god, this isn´t rational at all.

 

I have a friend that usually takes part on some sort of new age therapies, she has a serious chronic intestine disiese whcih sometimes cause big pain, and she says when she takes part on the treatment on the "spiritism center" she is healed from the pain by a "spiritual" (=dead, invisible) surgeon that works on her body. She says it works much better then the scientific medicine. To a person like this you can´t say that it doesn´t work... No matter how many scientific arguments, if I was feeling pain and now I don´t feel anymore this is enough reason to believe. Not that I´m sayng I believe in this type of therapy, but if it´s working for her then I won´t try to convince her to stop and go back to suffering with pain. I know there must be some scientific explanation, maybe what they do with her is nothing but hypnosis which makes her pain go away temporarily, but if it´s working and helping her, then it´s fine.

Religion is out of the game, in UK less then 8% of the people practice any religion, christianity is ruled out in the modern western world, and islam only grows because of immigration (and not local conversions). However, if you look at tabloids and magazines, you see things such as horoscope, re-incarnation, numerology and other esoteric beliefs are still very popular. In a recent poll it showed that in UK, the percentual of people who believe in spirits is bigger then the percentual of people that believe in God. So I don´t think people have become more rational, they only trade the idea of heaven/hell to infinite re-incarnations, and God/Joevah for a number of spirits and mystical forces that run the universe... How to explain astrology? If planets and stars dictate what happens in our life, then the Universe itself is some type of governing god, this isn´t rational at all.

 

I have a friend that usually takes part on some sort of new age therapies, she has a serious chronic intestine disiese whcih sometimes cause big pain, and she says when she takes part on the treatment on the "spiritism center" she is healed from the pain by a "spiritual" (=dead, invisible) surgeon that works on her body. She says it works much better then the scientific medicine. To a person like this you can´t say that it doesn´t work... No matter how many scientific arguments, if I was feeling pain and now I don´t feel anymore this is enough reason to believe. Not that I´m sayng I believe in this type of therapy, but if it´s working for her then I won´t try to convince her to stop and go back to suffering with pain. I know there must be some scientific explanation, maybe what they do with her is nothing but hypnosis which makes her pain go away temporarily, but if it´s working and helping her, then it´s fine.

 

 

dawkins will be attacking 'unscientific' methods/practises in the same way he villified god...

 

if new age practices really work then they can be measured, quantified and recorded.... maybe its more mind over matter, a placebo effect, that 'cures' new age believers, or maybe scientists just havnt yet studied it closely enough to discover the thruth.

part 1 TONIGHT CH4 8PM

pretty good, the silly notions like dowsing, astrology, spiritualism were shown up as nothing more then deluded emotions from people looking for evidence where non exists.

part 2 on tonight, ch4 8pm.

as good as ever, his no nonsense approach and his belief that faith in 'mumbo jumbo' is hampering progress is quite compelling.

 

but im not sure his dismissal of 'alternative therapies' though is watertight. only yesterday a 14 year old girl who has leukemia and was given only a short time to live, has gone into remission.... she isnt going to die soon (but the cancer might well return, shes not cured). this goes against science, science said that theres no remission, and that she will die (without a bone marrow op).

 

i like the 'hippy' 'new age' scene, but i doubt wether most of it actually works! i do believe though that as yet alternative therapies just havnt been scientifically scrutinised yet and to totally dismiss them with a closed mind would be wrong.