Friday
Dec032010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Good news
Dec 3, 2010 Climate: CRU Prince Charles has backed CRU scientists. In view of some of his other causes (homeopathy and the like) this is probably good news.
Dec 3, 2010 Climate: CRU
Reader Comments (57)
The problem with Cox, is that like Blair, Obama, and other "good looking" advocates of whatever, the ladies (and presumably some of the blokes) like a pretty, or charismatic persona. It wins votes, but destroys reality - the message is believable purely because of the popularity of the messenger, not it's content. Just goes to show how shallow and gullible the majority of people REALLY are...
I am saddened by Prince Charles' attitude to Climate Science, but saddened even more by the attitudes of many here to the Prince himself. For while, as you know, I'm an ardent climate sceptic, I was fortunate enough to have the challenges doggedly laid in front of me long enough, while I had time enough to study them. Ulric Lyons and Peter Taylor BOTH crossed my path at highly significant moments and I thank a fortunate Fate for that. My U-turn started while seeking to defend Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns from Peter Taylor (a rare radio discussion involving them both) - and finding that I could not fault Peter. The Prince appears to have had no such person crossing his path, and as people realize, his intellect is only moderate. However, I think his heart is in the right place, and that is important and a rare commodity. Like Monckton, Ball and Lindzen, he has endured a lifetime of considerable hostility and misrepresentation, in standing up for things that he passionately believed need defence - and in all cases except Climate Science, I do too.
Let's just look at homeopathy. Like Newton to Halley, who criticised astrology to him, I can say "I have studied it, you have not". I have studied enough of homeopathy, from the best of all sides, to know beyond a shadow of doubt that homeopathy is treated by modern science and folk like Ben Goldacre in exactly the same way as our sceptical Climate Science is treated by the scientific orthodoxy and folk like George Monbiot. Exactly the same. Therefore it saddens me to see those who have seen the light about Climate Science apply the old standards to homeopathy. So here are three leads.
The first is important, in that it is challenging the infamous Randi. I have seen several encounters with Randi and they do not make me like the man at all. He has made it his life's work, with paltry sleight-of-hand, to "debunk" and destroy the credibility of good people. Not all "pseudoscience" is pseudo and, just as with Climate Science, you have to look at each issue carefully, and judge each issue on the merits of the best evidence available from BOTH sides, and never, never, never assume that the debunkers will represent the other side fairly. Here is top homeopath Vithoulkas describing his own encounter with Randi: http://www.vithoulkas.com/content/view/1973/lang,en/
Second, read the chapter from The Field by Lynne McTaggart that describes the further research work of Professor Benveniste, undertaken on his own dime after he had, through the agency of Nature magazine and Randi, been driven out of his profession, in which he had risen to top ranks. This is not the only other good person (and excellent scientist) that Randi has tried, with sleight of hand and worse, to discredit.
Third, read the book Impossible Cure by Amy L Lansky PhD (computer scientist for NASA). Read the Amazon reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Cure-Homeopathy-Amy-Lansky/dp/0972751408/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291540801&sr=1-1 Almost always, in my now-wide experience of Amazon US (too few reviewers here in UK, to work this way on Am UK) if there is anything suspect, some reviewer will flush it out. Out of 34 reviewers, 31 give it 5 stars and there are no 2 or 1 star ratings. I've never seen such consistently high ratings. The Product Description says: "Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy provides an in-depth and exciting account of the history, philosophy, and experience of homeopathic medicine. At the core of Impossible Cure is the amazing story of how the author's son was cured of autism with homeopathy. It also includes dozens of other testimonials of homeopathic cure, for a variety of physical, mental, and emotional conditions......" and reviewers give similar testimonies.
Read those Amazon reviews, break your prejudices, and open up your hearts as well as your minds.
ah, I see someone puts Ben Goldacre on the side of the "credulous". I thought I remembered right there but did not check the most uptodate facts. Will do so asap. However, whatever, this does not change the rest of what I say. And I'm sure that that was the only improperly checked bit.
How dare you mock someone who's sexual fantasy is to be a tampon???
OK, let's get the conversation off homeopathy.
Bishop, ok. Not homeopathy per se, this time.
You know I love and support ardently what you do and have written, almost all the time. And most of the time, you do well to keep this blog courteous. But in this thread, the attitudes bothered me - and it was easiest for me to talk about it specifically as relates to homeopathy. Attitudes bordering on discourteous dismissal while not in possession of the most important facts (witness for the defence) which we rightly condemn with regard to RealClimate etc. IMHO.
I hope this clarifies things.
Get a job, Chuckles.