From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Wed Oct 16 2002 - 13:18:48 MDT
> > What pretty much clinched it for me was that he
> > actually argues
> > that conventional medicine out-competed homeopathy
> > on memetic
> > grounds.
> > The fact that homeopathy is complete fraud
> > and that
> > conventional medicine actually works was apparently
> > irrelevant to
> > him, since he only saw the memetic competition, and
> > completely
> > ignored the more rational basis for idea's success.
>
> "...Because the measure of the success of a web of
> memes--a myth, a hypothesis, or a dogma--is not its
> truth but how well it serves as social glue." -p.108
>
> and in fact he's addressing this on more than just
> medicine throughout the book.
>
> Barbaric medicine outsurvived its falacies being
> brought to light, there must be a different catalyst
> then it's truth. I don't see why this wouldn't apply
> to homeopathy.
It does, of course; that's the reason many such "alternative"
practices still exist despite being useless. I'm not denying
memetic influence. But Bloom actually imples that modern
medicine succeeded /only/ for memetic reasons rather than its
actual superiority. That's a ridiculous claim.
> and in fact when you say homeopathy is *complete*
> fraud, are you entirely denying that eating certain
> herbs can in effect help boost the immune system as in
> eating healthy always can? Or just the more fanatical
> aspects of it?
I'm talking about specifically Homeopathy, not herbs or
other alternative stuff. Homeopathic medicines don't
contain "herbs" or any other ingredients--they are pure
distilled water. They list ingredients on the label which
are used in their preparation, but the final medicines
don't actually contain any of what's listed (which is a
good thing, because most of the ingredients themselves are
poisonous).
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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