Comments on: CAM and Religiosity

By: Skeptics’ Circle #123

Skeptics’ Circle #123 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:25:10 +0000

[...] of the Skeptics’ Circle is out at Blue Genes. Posts to check out: The SkepVet Blog on CAM and religiosity; The Evolving Mind on cognitive biases; and Skeptic North on the lack of evidence for the healing [...]

By: The 123rd Congregation of the Skeptics’ Circle

The 123rd Congregation of the Skeptics’ Circle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:14:30 +0000

[...] Academician: Ah yes, SkeptVet did mention something about that: the strange union of the conservative Christians and New-Age hippies on this issue. There is also an evidence-based discussion of the further correlation between being a CAM proponent and being religious. [...]

By: Anti-Vaccine Activists and Conservative Christians vs HPV Vaccination « The SkeptVet Blog

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:45:45 +0000

[...] written before about the link between religion and CAM, both the philosophical link and the political alliance. However, I could not have imagined a clearer and more fascinating [...]

By: Bartimaeus

Bartimaeus — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:41:15 +0000

Science has produced some scary things (nuclear weapons, DDT, etc.) that have not been the answers to problems that we thought they would be, but I cannot think of anything worse than combining competing forms of religion or spirituality and technological advances. Even though science makes mistakes, it is the only system that intends to self correct, even if such corrections often come quite slowly. Religious views tend to change too, but even more slowly, and often with huge steps backward or through violence and destruction. Despite it’s human flaws, the scientific worldview still seems much superior, and this article shows one of the reasons why. I too would hope that efforts to appeal to clinicians spiritual views would be unsuccessful, but fear that will not be the case.

By: skeptvet

skeptvet — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:05:03 +0000

Note, I have made an addendum to this post as the result of a kind reader forwarding me a copy of the complete article.

By: skeptvet

skeptvet — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:38:15 +0000

Bartimaeus,

Absolutely agreed. Sadly, the heyday of public respect for science was after WWII, when people remembered before vaccines and antibiotics and felt that technology had saved them from the Nazis. For all the good that came out of the social changes of the 60s and 70s, there also came a profound sspicion of science and intellectuals, and a postmodern relativism that when carried to extremes denies the validity of all knowledge.

By: Bartimaeus

Bartimaeus — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:38:42 +0000

That is an interesting article, and one of the few really useful things I have sen from that journal. While I agree that we like to think we are beyond the days where religious beliefs inform our views of the physical world, I am not sure that is the case for a significant segment of the population. The strong anti-science and anti-intellectual zeitgeist that seems to be present in society may be a reaction to a perception that science and materialist explanations of the universe threaten peoples dearly held religious beliefs.

Sometimes these beliefs are a part of an organized religion, or they may be more personal forms of “spirituality”. Many forms of CAM are indeed fetishized belief systems that give people an illusion of personal control over things that may truly be beyond control, at least by religion or whatever other belief it is that they hold.

Peter Lipson had an interesting post about this idea recently as well;
http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/2009/09/shamans_in_the_hospital—have.php

By: EoR

EoR — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:20:45 +0000

If you’d like the full paper please let me know and I can forward a copy to you (eors.gloomy.place (at) gmail.com).