Homeopathy is an incredibly silly idea that falls apart at the first sign of scrutiny, but the fact that homeopathy has managed to survive as an idea since 1794, despite all advances in science and medicine, represents a failure of scientific critical thinking and equally shows how powerful hope can be for someone with an illness. One of the main things that manages to convert once skeptical and rational people to the side of homeopathy is receiving traumatic news, such as being diagnosed with a terminal illness. The prospect of death is so terrifying, or treatment for a condition too painful to some that it can cause one to seek out help from anywhere. The danger of homeopathy is in the empty promises it makes regarding its efficacy. When a substance has been shown to be no more effective that a clinically administered placebo, then the substance is in fact a placebo. Homeopaths will often forgo traditional or even critical treatment in favor of homeopathic or 'natural' treatments even if they have nothing to do with the original condition.
Unfortunately, ignoring and marginalizing homeopathy won't make it go away. Fortunately education is the most effective method of highlighting homeopathy's faults. Homeopathy can only take hold on someone who is largely scientifically illiterate, as even the most fundamental laws of natural science contradict the principles of homeopathy. Steps should be taken to build critical thinking and scientific reasoning as early as possible in a child's life in order to minimize the dangers of such faulty scientific thinking so early on in life. Stricter applications of truth in advertising could equally help the issue of homeopathic remedies being sold and marketed as nearly identical copies of actual proper medications, but ultimately the key is education.
In conclusion, I've included a link to a poem by the incredibly talented Tim Minchin regarding homeopathy and the personal implications it can have, not to mention that this is the only situation in which homeopathy can be made funny.
Wow! Mr. Minchin is quite talented. Although I must say I really like how he says that science has a willingness to change its point of view based on the evidence at hand. Anyway, thank you for sharing all the information you have about homeopathy. I have to be honest, I did not understand it at all before reading your blog. Now I know to stay away.
Wow! Mr. Minchin is quite talented. Although I must say I really like how he says that science has a willingness to change its point of view based on the evidence at hand. Anyway, thank you for sharing all the information you have about homeopathy. I have to be honest, I did not understand it at all before reading your blog. Now I know to stay away.
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