DIYbanter - View Single Post

wrote:

But it does matter if you are setting a stupid example to the young or
feeble minded. It matters greatly if you are ill and in need of real
medical help but taking advice from quacks, charlatans and that great
army of alternative 'remedy' fraudsters, counsellors etc etc.
Thats where it gets distasteful - they prey on the hypochondriacs, weak
bodied, feeble minded, needy, and make loads of money.

That is what I have a real problem with. The dowsing arguments being put
forward here are not in this league, no reasonable person could say that
they are. But I'd hate the idea of someone with no real opinion either
way wasting a lot of time and effort and feeling like an idiot.

In Belfast a few months ago there was a poor chap who went missing, and
the family brought in a psychic to try to locate him. The psychic said
that the man was dead (everyone had assumed that) and was somewhere dark
and watery (the police had been searching the river near to where he was
last seen for some time) and was in a bad way (well, no ****).
Discussing this with a few friends I got pretty much the same responses
I see here - how do you know she isn't psychic ? What if you don't
understand how the world really works ? What if this really helps the
family ?

Nobody knows everything about how the world works, it'll be a long time
before we do. Unfortunately it's not difficult to recognize flaws in the
human character, and they include gullibility and the willingness to con
people. Skepticism is the only mechanism we have to stop ourselves being
hurt, one way or another, by lies and trickery. It should be taught in
schools.