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So the Church of England has “decided” that science and religion are apparently compatible (a vague, loosely defined word in this context, but nevermind…) at a general synod in London. The BBC wrote:

[Dr Peter Capon, synod delegate] believes atheists are forcing the public to choose either belief in God or the logic of science in a bid to push religion out of the public sphere.

[...]

Dr Capon said he wanted “to refute the crude caricature of faith, as being blind and irrational, propagated by some atheist scientists”

Oh goodie, so religious faith is *not* blind and irrational -how dare you even think like that for such an open-minded institute as the Church of England, and such a rational and scientific discipline as is believing in two thousand year old peasant stories??

[Dr Capon] told the synod he rejected the notion that “science can resolve all questions capable of being answered”, arguing that questions about the existence of God and the meaning of life were “quite beyond scientific explanation”.

Alrighty, two things here: if a question (about our cosmos) has indeed a valid, objective answer, then how else can one discover it except with some sort of scientific enquiry? This is a (half) honest question and please answer it if you know how…

Second, questions about the existence of God and the meaning of life are NOT capable of being answered in a definitive way and obviously fall outside the realm of scientific enquiry. But the point here is that religion cannot answer those questions either -at least not in a meaningful way. Religion and faith can only speculate and effortlessly generate fantasy stories pertaining to such questions.

But wait! There is yet more fun to come!

[The Bishop of Southwark, the Right Reverend Dr Tom Butler] spoke of the scientific theory of dark matter, which he said involved “a lot of dark matter which we can’t even see, being propelled by forces we don’t understand”.

He added: “And they say that religion is all about faith.”

Oh goodie again! Tommy must have confused the methods which resulted in religious faith (lots of imaginative peasants high on hallucinating drugs) and the theory of dark matter (lots of observational evidence for the existence of something other than just the visible matter, with very accurate verifications coming from many different disciplines and various experiments; but I digress…)

Regarding the main question of compatibility of religion and science, I will just quote myself (isn’t that nice?):

Personally, I do not see how religion and science can coexist peacefully in one’s mind. Science regularly shreds to pieces religious ideas about our cosmos: from the creation of the world to the emergence of life, and from geocentric systems to flat earth ideas, biblical (and other religious) accounts of cosmology, creation of life, astronomy, and basic biology come in direct contrast with scientific evidence. If one accepts such evidence (as one should) then faith in the holy scriptures (and therefore the relevant omnipotent, omniscient God-writer) must be shaken -if not abandoned altogether. Otherwise, schizophrenic mechanisms have to be employed in order to accommodate both reason and supernatural irrationality in the same mind! There are of course many people accepting the scientific explanation for the emergence of life and at the same time preserving some hints of faith as a matter of tradition, culture, or something socially relevant. But to accept both Evolution and Creationism at face value sounds a bit too weird…

Anyway, there is still even more fun (highly concentrated in such short article), in the lines of “Science can only explain how something was created; religion can explain why”, but this just goes to show once again how rational, logic-based, reality-based, useful, faith institutions are.

Wait, what?!?

This is getting a bit repetitive but further evidence on the complete absence of any link between the MMR vaccine and autism have been presented in a Polish study lead by Dr. Dorota Mrozek-Budzyn[1].

From the National Institute of Health report:

Overall, the study found, children who had received the MMR vaccine actually had a lower risk of autism than their unvaccinated peers. Nor was there any evidence of an increased autism risk with the measles-only vaccine

Further down, and it’s always good to remember these things:

Measles, for instance, can lead to pneumonia or brain inflammation, and one or two children die out of every 1,000 who contract the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mumps can cause painful testicular swelling, brain inflammation and, in rare cases, hearing loss

I wonder if the anti-vaccination lunatics are willing to accept defeat or if they will keep pushing their ridiculous agenda still. Of course, the most probable reaction is to keep moving the goalposts: “it’s not the MMR vaccine, it’s the thimerosal in it”; “no wait, it’s not the thimerosal, it’s *some other* of the chemicals in the vaccines”; “no no, it’s the heavy schedule of vaccines that causes it, not a single MMR vaccine” and so on ad infinitum…

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References:

1. Mrożek-Budzyn D, Kiełtyka A, Majewska R, "Lack of Association Between Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination and Autism in Children: A Case-Control Study," Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, Dec 2009 [↩]

Yesterday, I was shocked to hear such comments from the Pope, a well known bastion of equality, supporter of human rights, and devoted to promoting tolerance towards every human being -having been created after all by God himself in his image.

So, as the BBC reported:

The Pope has urged Catholic bishops in England and Wales to fight the UK’s Equality Bill with “missionary zeal”. Pope Benedict XVI said the legislation “violates natural law”.

Let’s not even get started on why the heck do religious leaders get involved in politics, legislation, or… well, or pretty much anything that has to do with reality? What sort of expertise do they bring on the table?

Second, and as always, the Catholic Church is once again publicly advertising its intolerant characteristics, by labelling anything that has the word “equal” as a “violation of nature“, the “decadence of morality“, the “end of society” and other such ponderous bull****.

In response to these comments, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, said that this (and similar legislations) have been driving religious belief and practice into “the sphere of the private only”. Not quite there yet, are we? But that should in fact be the sphere of action for fairy tales, religions, unsubstantiated irrational beliefs that fall squarely outside reality.

Private only.

Keep it to yourselves.

You can do anything you like in private, and I will not complain so long as you don’t try to push your beliefs to defenceless people;

so long as you don’t try to influence society and legislation based on your beliefs;

so long as you don’t try to teach your beliefs in schools as science (!);

and so long as you don’t go around discriminating against or killing other people, merely because they happen to believe in some other imaginary guy in the sky or even (gasp!) believe in none!

[Slowly trying to get back to normal blogging after my moving into a new place, in a new area... And the DIY stuff are not even close to finished]

[source: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]

Amidst a pile of obligations, a moving out / moving in phase with severe delays, some lost flights, and a crazy (albeit particularly enjoyable) Christmas break, further journeys through burning minds had to stop for a while…

As things get back to normal slowly, I promise it will be business as usual within the next couple of weeks. I don’t want to keep my (three) readers disappointed for too long and there is certainly lots of stuff to write about in this crazy, god-fearing, new age world of ours.

Happy new year everyone!

Finally some good news on the front of freedom of information: Prof. Colquhoun has achieved an important victory in this domain! For years now (literally!) he has been asking the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) to provide their teaching material for their infamous BSc degree in homeopathy^* under the Freedom of Information Act.

The rationale behind this request, was a reasonable public interest in knowing how tax money are spent in publicly funded institutions like UCLAN. However, UCLAN rejected the requests citing “commercial interests” in handing out their teaching material… Courts were involved; first round won by Prof. Colquhoun (March 2008); appeals were raised by UCLAN; until finally:

The Tribunal upholds the decision notice dated 30th. March, 2009, dismisses the appeal and directs that all the steps required by the Decision Notice be taken within 28 days of the date of this Decision

See the history of this case over at DC’s improbable science.

Now what’s left is a win for freedom of expression as well…

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Footnotes:

1. * this degree has been abolished as of 2008 -wise move but won’t spare them the ridicule… [↩]

I have been watching some episodes of “House, MD” series lately -I find the main character particularly entertaining^*. In the last episode I watched (which is still from season 1), there is Harvey, a patient that visited the clinic because for some months now he has been grinding his teeth (!) The fun part begins when a doctor asks Harvey (and his friend) if he had had any treatments for his condition. Here is the whole woo dialogue:

• Doctor: Have you had any treatment for the teeth grinding?
• Friend: He saw an acupuncturist
• Doctor: Do you know what the acupuncturist did?
• Friend: She diagnosed liver chi stagnation and send Harvey to a zen balancer. He referred him to a homeopathic doctor who send him to a chiropractic
• Doctor: Naturally
• Friend: But the chiropractic thought it might be food sensitivity and send Harvey to a naturopath
• Harvey: And the naturopath send me back to the…
• Doctor: Back to the acupuncturist…

The acupuncturist diagnosed a liver chi stagnation!!! Here is a quick explanation according to a random google search hit (*real* natural medicine):

When chi flows smoothly, health is in a balanced state. When this vital force is interrupted or flowing in the wrong direction, health problems occur. Liver chi stagnation is a term used to describe an unharmonious flow of the liver’s energy, or simply put, ‘a sluggish liver’.

Yes!

Good thing Harvey was so early diagnosed, because then he could be ‘fixed’ by a zen balancer! According to another random google search hit (some Glasgow aromatherapy shop), here is what zen balancing is about:

Wrapping you from head to toe in luxurious warm Rose oil. using acupressure points on the head and face. followed by a soothing back, neck and shoulder massage with cleansed rose quartz placed on the body to re-balance energy. Reflexzone on pressure points of the feet as they are gently massaged. 60mins of pure bliss is completed by a soothing cup of green tea and honey. The perfect body balancing treatment

The poor guy has been circling around every imaginable form of pseudoscientific woo: homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic, crystals, reflexology, aromatherapy, energy healing, naturopathic diet fads! I wonder if anything has been left out? Maybe prayer?

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Footnotes:

1. * hmmm, perhaps I see elements of him in me? [↩]