Blatantly Suppressing Science, More Royal News, JREF Library File, Sylvia Got Something Right!, All Talk But No Cure, Yet Another Dowsing Rod, And It Still Pours, Accreditation Responsibility, Solutions Offered, Error, Educator McLeroy Again, Flamm Again on Flim-Flam, Another Favorite Myth Exploded, In Conclusion…
From reader Jan Willem Nienhuys comes another disturbing story from the Low Countries.
One of the “public broadcasting corporations” in the Netherlands is the EO, where “E” stands for Evangelical. Why such religious organizations are “public” is too complicated to explain. Competing with the EO is the Roman Catholic KRO, which specializes in psychic superstitions like miracle stories, reincarnation, and “competitions” between psychics. The EO turns out to be a bunch of liars as well. They broadcast the BBC series "The Life of Mammals" presented by David Attenborough, and it turns out that they left out certain comments about evolutionary theory; all references to "millions of years" were also systematically edited out. The last part of the series, mainly about the descent of man, was omitted altogether.
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BLATANTLY SUPPRESSING SCIENCEFrom reader Jan Willem Nienhuys comes another disturbing story from the Low Countries. One of the “public broadcasting corporations” in the Netherlands is the EO, where “E” stands for Evangelical. Why such religious organizations are “public” is too complicated to explain. Competing with the EO is the Roman Catholic KRO, which specializes in psychic superstitions like miracle stories, reincarnation, and “competitions” between psychics. The EO turns out to be a bunch of liars as well. They broadcast the BBC series "The Life of Mammals" presented by David Attenborough, and it turns out that they left out certain comments about evolutionary theory; all references to "millions of years" were also systematically edited out. The last part of the series, mainly about the descent of man, was omitted altogether. Mr. Nienhuys, I would suggest that the BBC should be made aware of this blatant interference with their program content, as well as David Attenborough – who I’m sure would strongly resent being censored. The “offensive” material has been left off the broadcaster's DVDs, also! I’m disappointed, since I was under the impression that citizens of the Netherlands take great pride in their freedom of speech rights… |
MORE ROYAL NEWSReader Christian Andersen comments on last week’s item at randi.org/jr/2007-07/072707bashing.html#i5: To continue the ongoing shenanigans in the Norwegian royal house, a book from 2001 called "On the Way" claims that Mette-Marit, the psychic princess Märtha Louise's sister-in-law, has also received treatment from her:
The treatments were for an ailment called "nyrebekkenbetennelse", which literally translated is "kidney-pelvis inflammation" – I have no idea what that is in English! Later, she says Märtha Louise calmed her down on a plane trip, almost but not quite curing her of fear of flying. Another Andersen, Peter Emil, adds: The Angel School of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway farce continues here in Norway. Until now, the debate has largely centered around the question of whether a princess should courageously offer her genuine religious beliefs or not – with some faint protests about the rip-off commercial aspects. The angel school courses are already fully booked for the next year – at minimum US$2,000 per course! But with 40% of the population believing that angels exist, the room for more fundamental skepticism has been limited. Sadly also, only a handful of scientists have challenged the angel nonsense, but summer vacation is not over yet, so I sincerely hope for more science-based protests in the near future. “Uneasy rests the head that wears a crown.” Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 2. Well put, Will. |
JREF LIBRARY FILEReader Eric Cline offers comments concerning last week’s item at www.randi.org/jr/2007-07/072707bashing.html#i13: I have downloaded the Excel file of the contents of the Isaac Asimov Library, and I look forward to seeing all this fine collection contains. Let me use this occasion to provide one more plug for the wonderful infidels.org, which has (at least) hundreds of articles on skepticism (of the religious sort) in its archives. This site has been mentioned on your site in the past, and it is a great treasure trove of fascinating articles, including a large section of historical writings by noted persons. Eric, I’ll add a note here to the library item, which received much enthusiastic attention from our readers. In what we call the “private” sector of the JREF library, we hold the rare book collection, books of special value that can be accessed only in person and under supervision. Here are most of the items in that group, a few others of them being out for conservation and/or rebinding: “Discoverie of Witchcraft” by Sir Reginald Scot. 1665. Very fine condition, rebound. “The True Predictions or Prognostications of Michael Nostradamus.” 1671. Translation by Theophilus de Garencières, the first edition in English. Fine condition, original binding. “Conjuror’s Magazine” – bound copies, August 1791–September 1792. Bound together with “Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy” circa 1789, translated by Rev. C. Moore. The magazine seems more concerned with suggestions on how to please clients with favorable horoscopes, palmistry, and witchcraft-style remedies, than actual conjuring-for-fun. See www.randi.org/jr/062802.html. “The History of the Inquisition in Spain” by D. Juan Antonio Llorente. 1827. A dreadful 400-page document listing the trials and punishments of the 340,000 victims of the Holy Inquisition, written by a former “Secretary of the Inquisition.” “Letters on Natural Magic” by Sir David Brewster. 1842. Correspondence between Brewster and Sir Walter Scott on various philosophical and natural-history matters. “A Treatise on Astronomy” by Elias Loomis, L.L.D. 1883. A remarkably complete account of the knowledge of this science as it stood at this period of time. “Magical Experiments, or Science in Play” by Arthur Good. 1890. Clever “parlor tricks” and amusements to while away Victorian evenings… “Behind the Scenes With The Mediums” by David P. Abbott. 1909. (2 copies) One of the most devastating exposés of the séances and psychological “cold reading” scams ever written. “Latest Magic” by Professor Hoffmann. 1919. Well-delineated conjuring tricks by Angelo Lewis. “The Coming of the Fairies” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1922. These are the two actual copies originally owned by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths – the two girls who perpetrated the hoax – both copies autographed to them by Conan Doyle. The library file is available for viewing at randi.org/library. |
SYLVIA GOT SOMETHING RIGHT!Reader Neil Henley Hitachinaka, in Japan, informs us, re our item last week about Sylvia Browne’s failed prophecies: Just a quick note to mention that in fact, Japan's Niigata prefecture did have a large earthquake (6+) in 2004. In fact, the big one two weeks ago occurred in the same prefecture. Considering that this is the most earthquake-prone nation on Earth, such a prediction carries about the same weight as the "hurricanes in Florida" divination. I foresee strong typhoons battering Okinawa this year. Am I eligible for the $1 million? Neil refers to a recent videotaping I did in Japan, in which an American “psychic” tried for the JREF prize. I’ll run a report and put up some footage from that, very soon… Another of our readers, obviously impressed with Jon Blumenfeld's SWIFT entry of last week, offers his own set of ten Sylvia Browne’s misses. Here’s “The Next 10: Volume II” – by our friend Bryan Farha. 1. American troops will be pulled out of Iraq by June or July. (prediction for 2004 – Wrong) I must also point out Sylvia’s clever use of colorful similes, as shown in #2, above. Slick! We can only admire her erudition. (Look it up, Sylvia…) |
ALL TALK BUT NO CUREReader Peter Smith directs us to a hilarious and presumptuous site, talkingcures.co.uk, and gives us his philosophy on the matter: Firstly many thanks for your enlightening and entertaining web site. It is the first thing I log onto every Friday at work. |
YET ANOTHER DOWSING RODReader Don Fearn directs us to tinyurl.com/3bmm57, to see an article from Modern Mechanix of September, 1934. It reads: Divining Rod Tunes in on Ore Don, this is exactly the same content as any number of – literally – hundreds of such “inventions” that all depend on the “ideomotor reaction/effect” that has sucked in so many thousands of persons over the centuries. See randi.org/encyclopedia/ideomotor%20effect.html for a description. No, dowsing does not work, and the majority of claims made for the JREF million-dollar prize are directed at this remarkable self-delusion… |
AND IT STILL POURSUK reader Simon Blake refers to last week’s item at www.randi.org/jr/2007-07/072707bashing.html#i9: In this week's SWIFT I note with some amusement the quote from the pagan:
I'm not sure where these people practice their "magic" – deep in a cave, presumably – but it's apparently escaped their notice that our small country is in the grip of the single wettest summer and most destructive floods in living memory, with the damage so far totaling $5 BILLION and counting. Simon, people who have their heads in the clouds seldom have the time to notice that their feet are wet… |
ACCREDITATION RESPONSIBILITYReader Stuart Stilling: I would just like to make two comments on items that appeared in the July 27, 2007, SWIFT. First, you include a quote from an individual who works for the federal government and rates resumés submitted by employees. The author talks about the Academy of Oriental Medicine and states:
I would like to point out that the government does not provide accreditation. Schools are accredited by regional accreditation associations, professional associations and by other groups. For example, the APA [American Psychological Association] provides accreditation for schools in clinical psychology. The Academy of Oriental Medicine's accreditation is from the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine – see aoma.edu/program.html. While I agree with the author that the school is teaching things that do not exist, the government is not responsible. The government's role is simply to record whether or not the school has received accreditation from a recognized accreditation authority, usually as a basis for providing student loans. Stuart, perhaps it depends on what you designate as “government.” I might be hard-pressed to distinguish between “regional accreditation associations” and groups endorsed by “government.” Do such associations themselves need to be licensed and/or have permits or authority? Nevertheless, your point is well made. I apologize to “The Government.” This reader then addresses the item last week at www.randi.org/jr/2007-07/072707bashing.html#i11: Second, the SWIFT column contained an account of a person who has given up his belief in Christianity and has been suffering from depression. This individual talks about seeking medical treatment, and seeing two psychiatrists and three psychologists who believe in the necessity of a "higher-power" for recovery. I do not know about the psychiatrists, but the three psychologists are clearly violating the ethical standards of their profession. As such, they should be reported to their state board. Given the area that your writer comes from, these psychologists probably reflected their community. This reflection, however, does not relieve them of their professional responsibility to use evidence-based methods, as well as to not impose their own religious beliefs on their clients. Stuart, I think that any and all “professionals” must “reflect their community” to some degree or another. It would be exceedingly naïve to believe that a devout Christian psychologist would not try to sway a Moslem husband toward allowing his wife to circulate in public without covering her face and body, if that practice was causing the woman distress… I recall years ago in Canada when a school psychologist became very agitated when I told him plainly that I did not believe in any deities, devils, miracles, or angels; he clearly declared that I was going to his personal version of Hell upon my demise, and hearing of this confrontation, one of my teachers eagerly took up the futile battle to save me from eventual fire and brimstone. You’ll see much more of our readers reactions to this item, right here: |
SOLUTIONS OFFEREDI will apologize for the length of this next item: more than 2,000 words. I am providing this so that it can be seen just how much our readers can empathize with an individual’s problems, and how they’ll offer constructive suggestions. Many more of the same nature were received, but these six examples cover the spectrum well… Reader Eric Cline – already heard from on another subject, above – offers his support to the uneasy reader at www.randi.org/jr/2007-07/072707bashing.html#i11: …in regard to this week's comments by the anonymous 32-year-old who was suffering from depression following loss of religious faith, let me pluck an excellent quote… which perhaps will help this person philosophically deal with the new understanding. It is from Clarence Darrow, and it deals with the question of whether or not religious faith should be encouraged simply because it is more comforting, never mind whether or not it is true:
From reader Ryan Gagne: I want to take a moment and respond to the person who wrote the REALITY CAN BE ROUGH letter in the recent SWIFT. I too have recently come to the full realization that belief in an all-powerful omniscient being is irrational, unnecessary, and outdated; however, it was more of a progression for me rather than a sudden flip. From reader John Brown: I read your letter on The Swift this evening, and thought I'd try to offer some unsolicited advice and counsel, as I too am a 32 year old former believer who's had an occasional hard time coming to grips with reality. Reader Brandom R. Nielsen: Upon reading the latest issue of SWIFT, I was particularly drawn to the anonymous reader’s account that was posted under the heading “Reality Can Be Tough” since it paralleled my own experiences. Please forward this message to the reader if you believe it would help him or her. Reader Brian Makepeace offers: Like you [Randi] I was an early skeptic of the god concept and all things supernatural but I can, nevertheless, empathize with the writer from Houston (July 27 Swift) who recently abandoned his theistic belief system. Although he claims he misses the positive influence his “belief” had on his life, and that he now suffers from depression as a result, I would guess that most of his new-found angst is due to the fact that he has become an outsider in his community. As an atheist and skeptic in a town filled with new-agers, I know first-hand how lonely and depressing it can be when you feel like the only sane person around. I would recommend that the gentleman search online for skeptic, agnostic, or atheist groups in his area. There is nothing like meeting people with similar experiences and sympathetic ears to cheer one up. If, after meeting some new like-minded friends, he still suffers from depression, he should continue to seek mental health attention – even if from a doctor who is a “believer.” Perhaps then, medication would be appropriate and effective, even if the counseling isn't. If this isn’t enough to convince you that our readers are trying to help, go to tinyurl.com/363h54 for a bit more… |
ERRORReader Johan P. Bakker, Staff Mechanical Engineer with Unisys, corrects me on a statement in last week’s randi.org/jr/2007-07/072707bashing.html#i1 item, where I wrote that the United States Patent & Trademark Office [USPTO] doesn’t require any working model of a perpetual-motion machine to be presented when a patent is applied for. I’ve been told to consult the rules, which clearly state: With the exception of cases involving perpetual motion, a model is not ordinarily required by the Office to demonstrate the operability of a device. If operability of a device is questioned, the applicant must establish it to the satisfaction of the examiner, but he or she may choose his or her own way of so doing. I stand corrected and contrite. Reader Charles Staniforth, however, refers to a ploy that I’ve seen used by these deluded scallywag inventors. He writes: Have they broken [the Law of Conservation of Energy]? I doubt it. Would they need to show a working model to get a patent on a claimed PMM [Perpetual Motion Machine]? I suspect they would. They say they will get round this by patenting the device in pieces, so to speak, with no one patent making a claim to perpetual motion. |
EDUCATOR MCLEROY AGAINReader John White: While reading Phil Plait’s letter in this [last] week’s commentary about Texas’s new creationist head of the Board of Education, I thought, “Didn’t I just read about him in another article?” Oh, yes. He was quoted in a USA Today article (usatoday.com) about how Texas has the highest rate of teen births in the country despite (because of?) its emphasis on teaching abstinence rather than sex education. This is the relevant quote from USA Today:
Now, let me get this straight. The guy in charge of educating Texas’s children makes a blanket statement that it’s naïve to think that giving teenagers “a lot of information” is going to solve any problems. I thought that was what school is for! Incidentally, every state in the Deep South, the most religious area of the country, has very high teen birth rates. Makes you wonder what they’re teaching in those churches! |
FLAMM AGAIN ON FLIM-FLAMAmong many other previous references in SWIFT, you can click on randi.org/jr/2007-02/022307sniffex.html#i7 for an update on the ongoing battle Dr. Bruce Flamm has been waging with medical pseudoscience. The latest: You may find this hard to believe but authors of supposedly scientific medical articles are still quoting the fraudulent Cha, Wirth, Lobo "pregnancy by prayer" study as if it were valid! It takes only 30 seconds to search Google for the terms, "Cha, Wirth, Lobo.” This instantly yields HUNDREDS of articles and comments about the absurd publication, along with mountains of information about the arrest and conviction of author Daniel Wirth. How could anyone miss this?
And, adds Dr. Flamm, in response to my request for the current position of the editor of this formerly-respectable journal: [Editor-in-Chief Lawrence D. Devoe, M.D.] at the Journal of Reproductive Medicine has made it clear that he will never retract the absurd and almost certainly fraudulent prayer publication. He no longer responds to my emails. This is, as I’ve said before, an incredible flaunting of scientific protocol and ethics by Dr. Devoe, obviously because of his personal embarrassment that he accepted such a woo-woo paper in the first place, and/or his desire to have this mythology be true. He’s dug in his heels and caused the JRM to lose its acceptability in the medical world. The JRM thus appears to have decided to endorse and accept quackery and blatant fraud as items of their agenda. |
ANOTHER FAVORITE MYTH EXPLODEDI’ve been fascinated for some time now with the new advanced imaging techniques that are being used to resolve the text of the “Archimedes Palimpsest,” now acknowledged to be the earliest known Greek text of writings by the philosopher/mathematician/scientist/engineer Archimedes, some of it unknown until this discovery. See www.randi.org/jr/02-09-2001.html. All sorts of scintillation and X-ray fluorescence methods are used, and the document is slowly surrendering its secrets. But now these same techniques are enabling scholars to decipher some of the multitude of scraps of papyrus fragment that fill drawers of their museums. One such, a 1,500-year-old bit of papyrus written in Greek, the original language of the New Testament, contains a key passage from the Book of Revelation that is causing consternation in the determined woo-woo scene concerning the bit about the fabled “Number of the Beast,” or the sign of the anti-Christ whose coming is predicted in the book’s apocalyptic verses. Most versions of this section of the Bible give it as 666, but it is shown in this text – which pre-dates the other texts by at least a century – as 616. The older version uses the Greek letters signifying the number 616. Bummer, right? Now all those books and stories will have to be re-written and the films scrapped! This was a perfectly good delusion, apparently shattered by the nasty facts. Although the papyrus, discovered in an ancient garbage dump – archaeologists call this a “midden” – outside the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, was first excavated in 1895, it was badly discolored and damaged, and could not be read. The new technology has made it possible to see what it originally said. Scholars believe that the Book of Revelation was actually written by the disciple John, and in the popular King James Bible, the translation of the passage reads: Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. However, the New English Bible has it thus: Here is the key; anyone who has intelligence may work out the number of the beast. The number represents a man’s name, and the numerical value of its letters is six hundred and sixty-six. Now, biblical scholars aver – correctly – that with the early texts, they’re dealing with copies, and those are made, at best, 150 to 200 years after the original was written, and they can have errors in copying, or changes intentionally made for political or theological reasons. True, of course. But let’s not get too carried away with enthusiasm over this latest discovery. What if another papyrus scrap predating even this “616” one shows up and gives us the old 666 – or even 665…? Scholarship is too rocky a road. I think I’ll opt for good old superstition, mythology, and blind belief. Like in the Good Old Days… |
IN CLOSING…At youtube.com/watch?v=Ih2CbttEMrg you’ll find an excellent almost-seven-minute video clip that shows a vigorous attack on a popular and world-wide scam that Australian authorities have now put a stop to. This is the kind of confrontation that should be given to every one of these crooks, but is seldom achieved.
Finally, look at this video, in which I prepare viewers for an excerpt that shows Uri Geller on an early-morning Israeli TV show, and then give me your thoughts… It’s at [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOtpJCzH82g] |