You may have a point. However, I have heard two different definitions of homeopathy, and I suspect that most people who say they practice homeopathy prefer the less ridiculous one. The more ridiculous one is the idea that dilluting something to the point where water is all that’s left is a good way to amplify its curative powers. I don’t doubt that there have been studies disproving this kind of “magic” water, I’ve never had anyone seriously advocate it to me, and wouldn’t hesitate to laugh in their face if they did.
But then we have people that think something along the lines that e.g. taking an herb which causes the symptoms of a disease (say, cayenne pepper for a cold) will hasten recovery. That’s described as “homeopathy” because that’s what “homeopathy” (“like the disease”) actually means. Conventional medicine that seeks to treat the functional symptoms directly is often described as “allopathic” medicine (“opposite the disease”). These people often contend that allopathic medicine causes long-term problems by circumventing the body’s natural healing processes.
Obviously it’s a case of sometimes-valid heuristics gone wrong. Such individuals aren’t right (especially not the ones who think this is a general rule of biology). But it doesn’t change the fact that, watching “skeptics” tear down a flimsy representation of the idea by focusing on the stupidest possible incarnation, it comes across as a better example of tribal politics than rationalism. There’s also nothing innately crazy (certainly not evil-mutant-crazy) about thinking the body’s natural processes are more capable of certain kinds of things (e.g. killing cancer cells) than modern medicine, and that they can be tweaked with the proper stimulation.
The real problem is not belief in alternative cures like drinking dilluted bleach with lemon juice to cure malaria (which are at least materialistic, empirical, evidence-based, and ultimately scientific claims about the universe), it’s failure to believe in well-known and scientifically studied phenomena such as the placebo effect, hormesis, and confirmation/selection bias.
You may have a point. However, I have heard two different definitions of homeopathy, and I suspect that most people who say they practice homeopathy prefer the less ridiculous one. The more ridiculous one is the idea that dilluting something to the point where water is all that’s left is a good way to amplify its curative powers. I don’t doubt that there have been studies disproving this kind of “magic” water, I’ve never had anyone seriously advocate it to me, and wouldn’t hesitate to laugh in their face if they did.
But then we have people that think something along the lines that e.g. taking an herb which causes the symptoms of a disease (say, cayenne pepper for a cold) will hasten recovery. That’s described as “homeopathy” because that’s what “homeopathy” (“like the disease”) actually means. Conventional medicine that seeks to treat the functional symptoms directly is often described as “allopathic” medicine (“opposite the disease”). These people often contend that allopathic medicine causes long-term problems by circumventing the body’s natural healing processes.
Obviously it’s a case of sometimes-valid heuristics gone wrong. Such individuals aren’t right (especially not the ones who think this is a general rule of biology). But it doesn’t change the fact that, watching “skeptics” tear down a flimsy representation of the idea by focusing on the stupidest possible incarnation, it comes across as a better example of tribal politics than rationalism. There’s also nothing innately crazy (certainly not evil-mutant-crazy) about thinking the body’s natural processes are more capable of certain kinds of things (e.g. killing cancer cells) than modern medicine, and that they can be tweaked with the proper stimulation.
The real problem is not belief in alternative cures like drinking dilluted bleach with lemon juice to cure malaria (which are at least materialistic, empirical, evidence-based, and ultimately scientific claims about the universe), it’s failure to believe in well-known and scientifically studied phenomena such as the placebo effect, hormesis, and confirmation/selection bias.