Re: [atheists-27] “Reparative” Therapy
| From: | Mathew G. |
| Sent on: | Saturday, April 11, 2015, 10:06 AM |
Steve Jobs had a slow growing cancer that is cured for 87% of patients who are diagnosed early and quickly treated with surgery. Instead he opted for hydrotherapy, consulted psychics, got surgery only after it was far too late, and died. He was a skeptic about gods before he got cancer, so why the reliance on hydrotherapy and psychics? I do not know. Not everyone who is skeptical about gods has given the larger issue of how we properly reach well justified conclusions about how the universe functions. Instead they follow their gut feelings and intuitions. Maybe Steve Jobs experienced so much success following his intuition that he became overconfident in his intuition. Maybe he did not think about or read about how to go about distinguishing and recognizing the true from the false. Maybe if he did then he would have made better decisions after he got cancer. This requires being less reliant on intuition and gut feelings and more reliant on seeking the overall best fit with the available empirical evidence. That is all there is to it.
On Apr 11, 2015, at 12:49 AM, Don Wharton <[address removed]> wrote:
None of these other forms of bad thinking cause the abusive mistreatment of people at the level of reparative therapy. They also don't have the explicit support of religious dogma.
The funding for alternative medicine at NIH is not all wasted. One of the studies that debunked reparative therapy was funded by that NIH organization.
What I find amazing is how people with high levels of education can get sucked into views that are just false. I have a friend with an MD who went to Princeton on a nearly full scholarship. He believes is homeopathy and a range of other nonsense. He often sends me published science with small sample sizes that claim to prove one variety of nonsense or another. I have been universally skeptical and even tried to run some experiments to disconfirm some of his beliefs. With all disconfirming evidence he just imagines some other hypothetical way to justify his original belief. My take away is a point that we have explored before, namely that there is a lot of bad science out there (and a lot of gullible people who should know better.)
I have and ex-wife, also with and MD, who is convinced that acupuncture works. She actually went away for a relatively long term intensive training session will boatloads of required paperwork. When I suggested that it was total bunk, her reply was, “Oh no, there are lot's of double blind studies confirming that it works.”
I recall another new age medicine vendor claiming over 200 published studies confirming homeopathy. Ouch!
We may want to believe in science, but please understand there are a good number of problems associated with our confidence in science. I don't see any way to clean up science so that these layers of nonsensical will no longer plague our civilization.
Don
Subject: Re: [atheists-27] “Reparative” Therapy
From: [address removed]
To: [address removed]
Date: Fri, 10 Apr[masked]:47:12 -0400Yes. Far too many Democrats vote in favor of laws written by associations of charlatan medical practice businesses to establish boards to license quack health care. We have government licensed doctors of Naturopaths in Maryland and that law explicitly endorses homeopathy, magnetic therapy, etc. The now retiring Senator Barbara Mikulski supported the alternative medicine business. Too many people do not recognize that by paying for alternative medical they get either the same good advice given by genuine medical doctors who follow the empirical evidence (diet, sleep, exercise) or nonsense, and the bulk of it is nonsense.
On Apr 10, 2015, at 4:09 PM, Glenn <[address removed]> wrote:Now if we can only get him to come out against homeopathy, chiropractic, supplements and other quakery......
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On Apr 10, 2015, at 3:09 PM, Don Wharton <[address removed]> wrote:As we know, our nation is on a very visible path to establishing full marriage rights for the LGBT community. Obama has come out in support of outlawing so called reparative therapy. This is major news that should highlight a significant new civil rights battle.
From the NY Times:
Obama Calls for End to ‘Conversion’ Therapies for Gay and Transgender Youth
A 17-year-old transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note that religious therapists had tried to convert her back to being a boy.
In response, President Obama is calling for an end to such therapies aimed at “repairing” gay, lesbian and transgender youth. His decision on the issue is the latest example of his continuing embrace of gay rights.
Full article:
Don
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