Sunday, February 20, 2011

James Randi's at it again!


I like James Randi. The 'father of skepticism', as he's been called, has made a career of using science and fact to debunk all sorts of outlandish claims by pseudo-sciences and bogus quackery.

He's questioned the claims of homeopathy before, as we've reported on this blog. Now he's come out with a new video challenge, complete with assistance from dozens of other sceptics. The Los Angeles Times reports:

In an online video, Randi consumed an overdose of homeopathic sleeping pills to demonstrate that they have no effect, and skeptics elsewhere consumed large overdoses of other homeopathic drugs in similar demonstrations. Randi also offered $1 million of his own money to any manufacturer of a homeopathic product who could prove that the product actually worked as claimed, and challenged major retailers like CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreens to remove the products from their shelves.

"Consumers have the right to know what they are buying," he said. "No one should walk out of a drugstore with a homeopathic product without knowing these basic facts: There is no credible evidence that the product does what it says. There is not one bit -- not a single atom -- of the claimed 'active ingredient' in the package, and no U.S. health agency has tested or approved the product."


There's more at the link.

Here's Randi's video challenge.







There's nothing like putting your money where your mouth is, to prove your sincerity: and Randi's backing up his words with a million dollars of his own hard-earned cash. I'd say if the homeopathic industry doesn't take up his challenge, it'll be thoroughly discredited . . . but then, that's the whole idea, isn't it?

Peter

EDITED TO ADD: I've had a couple of e-mails from homeopathy users, accusing me (and Mr. Randi) of bias because we don't 'believe' in it. To answer them, here's the original video I posted in my earlier article on the subject. I think it does a very adequate job of debunking homeopathy's claims.







8 comments:

suz said...

The scary part is that some homeopathic medicines contain ingredients that do have effects, but not necessarily the ones touted on the bottles. Anyone who wants to use the stuff is a fool if they don't do a LOT of research first. The only "safe" ones are the ones that don't do anything!

Long live the placebo effect!

Old NFO said...

Suz is right... Placebo effect it is...

STxRynn said...

My wife went to a homeopath, and then I went. I noticed that my finger knuckles quit hurting and popping all the time immediately after the visit.
Not sure why.

BUT.... the more I looked into the claims, the less I could rationally believe them. Look up the 6c, 6x nomenclature on their stuff.

My understanding of their logic is that if you dilute the active ingredient, it works better. with that 'logic', if I don't take it at all, I'm getting a massive dose!!!

I agree, with old NFO, placebo. The little pills my wife takes are milk sugar.

did P.T. Barnum invent Homeopathy?

perlhaqr said...

"You're fuckin' right I don't 'believe' in it! Science isn't about 'believe' or 'don't believe'. Science is about 'I can prove this works, repeatably, in hundreds if not thousands of cases.'"

Grr.

Homeopathy: The theory that water can somehow 'remember' a bit of aspirin or whatever that's been diluted in it a million times, but forgets all the fish poop it's had in it. (Thanks to Tim Minchin's "Storm" for that bit.)

LabRat said...

One does not believe or disbelieve in aspirin. It has a chemical structure and comes in consistently quantifiable amounts and has a range of different effects, some desirable and some not. If you take very little of it it won't do anything noticeable. If you take way too much of it it will kill you.

Belief required is pretty much the definition of placebo.

The Raving Prophet said...

I'm still waiting for homeopathic trauma care.

Get hit by a bus, you get shown pictures of a garage that once held a BMW Isetta. Get shot, some guy tells you he once saw Die Hard.

Think those dilutions will work?

Anonymous said...

Well of course nothing happened--he took too much! Had he cut one of the pills in half twice and taken one quarter, he'd be dead now.

Antibubba

Anonymous said...

Wow, wrong shark tank for that homeopathic believer to slip into! :-)

Jim