Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The UK's New Minister For Magic

Posted by Soulskill on from the pure-and-undiluted dept.

An anonymous reader sends this depressing excerpt from New Scientist: "A serious blow to science-based medical practices has been dealt in the UK with the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary. The fortunes of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) are about to be transformed with the help of the magical waters of homeopathic medicine. Top marks to The Telegraph's science writer Tom Chivers for quickly picking up on talk that the UK's new health minister, Jeremy Hunt – who replaced Andrew Lansley yesterday in a government reshuffle – thinks that homeopathy works, and should be provided at public expense by the NHS."

2 of 526 comments (clear)

  1. Insulting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    It's not magic. Talk to my daughter who had frightful warts on her fingers. Nitrogen, peeling gels, tape... nothing worked for years. Six weeks into a homeopathic treatment and they were 50% reduced. Gone at 13 weeks. You can blather about coincidence all you want. It worked in that case. And I'll happily try it myself anytime.

  2. LOLz @ Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The problem with the science myopic folk is that they are often hypocritical. Science has advanced human kind in a relatively short time far, far (!) beyond the imaginations of our ancestors, and for that it deserves the utmost respect; yet science is *only* the study of the physical universe. Humans aren't merely physical entities (don't tell me thoughts and ideas are just chemical reactions or neural electrical interactions, heck science can't even quantify the basic concept of vital energy in the human body), therefore there should be room and open mindedness to investigate alternative methods of healing... but, using the scientific method! That is an accepted solution should include verifiable, quantifiable and repeatable procedures yielding similar if not identical results, but allow for those procedures to not necessarily follow currently known physical and biological laws.

    Every time I see a headline that starts with "Scientists discovered X...", I just have to laugh, because despite their hubris they are constantly admitting their own ignorance of what's always been there.