What's up with all this snake oil lately?

[N-Man]

OB1 SPEAKETH

You're confusing homeopathic medicine with something else, probably holistic medicine. Homeopathy is well-respected in the medical community and is just as "mystical" as aspirin. I don't buy most of that alternative medicine stuff, but believe it or not there are other ways of healing yourself aside from taking drugs and getting surgery. Certain types of food are better for the body than others, and stuff like ginger is good for you if you have a stomach ache. Nothing fantastical about that.

Well said, N-Man. Use homeopathic medicine if you have diarrhea and don't want to use something as strong as Immodium AD, which is bad for you if you use it more than once every several months.

Hey I skoff at it too, but it seems to work. Though in the end it's probably not that great for you.

Okay two things: Firstly, you are speaking of homeopathic medicine as it is called in the U.S., and even though it was invented in Germany it is something entirely different in Europe. Not diluted herbs and stuff. Just regular foods and herbs used to alleviate pain and symptoms. Like ginger for stomach aches. Stuff like that.

Secondly, the homeopathy as it is known in the U.S. is not a complete farce and the majority of the scientific community does not reject it because it does help people, even if it's solely a placebo effect. What matters is the end result. Saying that your personal experience is irrelevant is a ridiculous thing to say. We're talking about methods of healing people, and the best way to figure out what works is to see what effects these methods have on people, even if they have not been scientifically proven. Surely you can't be that narrow-minded, DJ.

DJ is indeed very high-strung.

It never ceases to amaze me how throughout history people have proclaimed things as absolutely true or false based on their level of understanding of science. We still have a very limited understanding of science, oftentimes just knowing the names of certain principles and ideas without even knowing the why's or how's. It is true that there are many things that we can claim as absolute fact with much more confidence than people could have even 50 years ago, but there is still so much unknown to us that stating something as absolutely false solely based off of the fact that we can not current prove it to be true... is simply ridiculous. If there's one thing that has been consitent over time it is the arrogance of man.

Your rooster example is valid, but so would someone a thousand years ago believing but not being able to prove that the earth is not flat based off of his or her own observations. This person may not be able to prove his or her theory to be fact, but likewise it also cannot be disproved. Now I'm not saying that I believe in most of the things you've talked about, but I definitely do not have the arrogance and foolishness to proclaim then as absolutely false. You can use words like "unproven", "inprobable", and even "poppycock", but it is not wise to proclaim something as absolutely false when there is simply no way (currently, at least) to prove it right or wrong.