Flat Earthers and what to do with them

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Doctor_Cake in reply to @NurseHolliday

My wife is Assistant Director at a charity called Sense About Science

Fantastic organisation. They do really great work.

The Lancet Oncology used to do a series called Quackery. The one on crystals was quite a fun read (this is probably paywalled, but in case you have access via academic institute).

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(14)70098-1/fulltext

Interestingly, the review was quite benign on the topic, given that crystals don't actually do active harm, like some other alternative therapies (although if it stops a person receiving proper treatment, that's not great).

However, despite the absence of evidence and the frequently grandiose claims of efficacy, the use of crystals is unlikely to cause the harm seen with other alternative therapies, such as mistletoe and aristolochia. Indeed, similar to many alternative therapies, the benefit is often derived not from the therapy itself, but from the holistic environment in which it is delivered.

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itsbruce in reply to @Doctor_Cake

Interestingly, the review was quite benign on the topic, given that crystals don't actually do active harm

A couple of years ago, somebody who's on here posted on social media "My cat has a bad back. A friend left some 'healing' crystals here so I'm going to pass them over it's back. What's the worst it could do?"

To which my response was: "It could kill it."

My point being that anything which can genuinely have an effect could potentially have a negative effect. When people say "What's the worst it could do?" about so many 'alternative therapies', the best you can say is that they're implicitly accepting that the technique in question is hokum. But some of those therapies can poison and kill, which the alternative therapies people will never acknowldge.

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dancing james in reply to @itsbruce

But they are natural so can only have a positive effect. (Like all those naturally occurring poisonous things)

Don't you understand that it is only man made chemicals that kill. The same ones that occur in nature are natural and therefore good.
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NurseHolliday in reply to @itsbruce

Again, not to bang on about where my wife works, but they published a booklet entitled "I've got nothing to lose by trying it", you can download it here: http://senseaboutscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ive-got-nothing-to-lose-by-trying-it.pdf

It details exactly what you've got to lose by trying crystals and other bullshit.
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Doctor_Cake in reply to @itsbruce

But some of those therapies can poison and kill, which the alternative therapies people will never acknowldge.

Yup, a lot of them have properties that can actively interfere with drugs with proven effectiveness, causing harm even if the person isn't actively shunning conventional treatment.

I have a feeling that most of these conspiracy theory lovers don't get on with Occam's razor as a concept.

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