Need more targets?
I've been grossly unfair. Everyone who reads this site knows I have nothing but contempt for religion and creationism, but there are many other looney ideas I despise. I offer a short list here, in the interest of encouraging more diversity in my hate mail.
- Acupuncture is based on something nonexistent ("chi") flowing through channels that aren't there that has effects that have never been demonstrated. Sticking needles in people and turning them into porcupines is kind of neat, but more as a joke than therapy.
- Astrology pretends that our destinies are guided by the impersonal movements of vast lumps of rock and ice. For some reason, this singularly silly and long-discredited idea drives the most amazingly baroque statistical fishing expeditions. Get over it. You have to be as dumb as Ronald Reagan to give it any credence.
- ESP is another will o' the wisp that doesn't make sense if you think about it. Sure, the brain contains patterned electrical activity…but the pattern is variable between individuals, extremely small in magnitude, and you don't possess sensors sensitive enough to detect it.
- Feng Shui is a silly fad for the shallow.
- Ghosts and all that afterlife crap—one human universal is death and grief. Another is the existence of lying parasites who will make up stories to milk people of their pain.
- Homeopathy freights the structure of water with unbelievable specificity and inflexibility. If I'm supposed to believe that an agent diluted to nonexistence is supposed to have incredibly potent effects on me, shouldn't I be much more concerned about that single bacterium farting botulinium toxin into my drinking water, or that dead squirrel rotting up on the banks of the reservoir?
- Libertarianism is the new religion for the self-centered.
- UFOs. Unknown lights in the sky? I believe that. Transdimensional transport pods piloted by the Sasquatch inhabitants of the Earth's hollow core? Shee-yeah, and like I've got a village of gnomes living in my belly button.
- Velikovsky. Poor scholar and delusional fabulist. He was able to dress up his errors in the dead dreary, droning style of most serious academics, so he has fooled a lot of people.
I'm sure there are more. If you happen to have some daring, iconoclastic idea that every establishment figure laughs at despite your carefully drawn crayon diagrams and the endorsement of your spirit guide, you can safely assume I think you're an idiot, too, and send a little pre-emptive email venom my way anyway.
Aaargh, how could I forget the chiropractors? Stan Jones wrote to remind me, and boy, I can't stand those frauds. Sure, a good vigorous back message feels good, but please don't pretend it's medicine. There's a legitimate discipline called physical therapy that works with real doctors, and I'd rather see one of them.
This is a wonderful entry.
I can only imagine the rage of the people who are sending you email right now. You should share them, for.. uh.. science.
Yes, share the emails for science!