Crazy-ass Chiropractic - Woo-woo Overload

A blog follower just forwarded me the following images from what appears to be a local Chiropractor's mass email - and I figured that I'd post them prior to picking them apart (I do have a job that, oddly, expects me be effective (in other words, I'm not a chiropractor) for me to keep it).

In case you're thinking about going, you might want to remember one word: bullshit.  This is medical quackery at its finest (or worst).

Note: The images are cut off, click on each to see the full image.

I could be wrong

I'm willing to admit that I could be wrong (about god or other things) and that makes me more honest than most religious believers.

I find it intellectually dishonest for a believer to ask "what would make you believe in god?" when they are not willing to give an answer to the opposite question "what would make you stop believing in god?".

Often I've been in situations where I'm told that I'll "make a good christian" or that I'll be able to "save many others when (I) find god". I'm pretty certain that most "out" atheists have been told the same. The reality is that most believers are absolutely certain about the existence of god and, in spite of the evidence, will insist that they can't be wrong.

As an atheist, I'm willing to accept the existence of a god so long as the evidence supports such. At this point in time there is no evidence to support that a god exists and, as we learn more, the opportunity for a god to be "found" seems to be shrinking.

If honesty is a virtue, why aren't more followers of the major religions willing to accept that they could be wrong about the existence of their god? I'm almost absolutely certain that their god* does not exist but I am willing to accept that I could be wrong.

*I may not be referring to your god.

Robbie Thomas: Answer the Skeptics

It may seem that the attention on Robbie Thomas has been completely one-sided.  "What does Robbie say about your claims?" is a question I'm getting on a regular basis so, to be fair, I'm attempting to formally solicit a response from Robbie (and/or John, the tour organizer). 

I have sent them a friendly email asking for a list of cases that Robbie Thomas has been involved in.  In case "psychics" are not able to receive emails from me, I encourage you, too, to contact Robbie Thomas and John Ramses and let them know about the blog and encourage them to respond.

robbiethomastours@gmail.com
jvramses@hotmail.com

In case you haven't been reading my blog, Robbie Thomas is a self-proclaimed "Psychic Investigator" and (his claim) has been working with police in at least 4 countries to solve missing person and murder cases for 18 years.  Robbie Thomas is about to start a "tour" (two dates confirmed so far) across "North America" (More information at www.robbiethomas.net) to explain his successes and "help" in unsolved cases in those areas.  

He claims that he was involved in the Tori Stafford case (The OPP say no psychic was involved) as well as the resolution of the Cezar Cano case - and ultimately the capture of the perpetrator (The Louisville KY Police claim he was not involved).  More information on both cases has been listed in previous blog postings:
Tori Stafford Case:
http://sarniaskeptic.blogspot.com/2009/05/psychic-solves-abductionmurder-case.html
http://sarniaskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/01/being-praised-for-failures-robbie.html

Cezar Cano Case:
http://sarniaskeptic.blogspot.com/2010/01/robbie-thomas-cezar-canos-case-not-just.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-PPXyYaFaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiT83ed3aTk

If Robbie Thomas has "psychic" abilities (nobody in the world has proven that psychic abilities even exist), I will post updates - listing the cases that Robbie has been involved (and solved) and you'll see the Solved Cases Counter updated.  (Note: It currently stands at 0 solved cases in 18 years)

Update: I received an automated response from "Robbie Thomas Offices":

Thank you for contacting the offices of Robbie Thomas. Due to high volumes of mail we will be contacting you as soon as possible.


Once Again,

Thank You!

Ligia Picanco
Manager
Robbie Thomas Offices
519-337-8333

--
'The Sallie House' the highly anticipated movie is out now and critics rave about it! www.thesalliehousemovie.com is where you can check this incredible gate way to the paranormal movie out!

"Paranormal Encounters"...Robbie's 4th book coming to book stores in the new year. Keep your eyes on this one!

"Paradox" The Movie coming to screens everywhere in 2009. Robbie produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for this factual based movie based on the Paranormal and twisted it with Horror.



Robbie Thomas Offices
519-337-8333

Is Robbie Thomas a liar?

Here's Robbie (thanks to an anonymous comment on the previous blog entry) not merely suggesting that he was involved in the case - "The last case I solved was in 2007, we captured the murdered Cecil Eugene New in Louisville Kentucky":


Robbie, your solved cases counter still stands at 0.  Since that is the case, some might suggest you're lying.

A Mystery That Robbie Thomas Can Solve

First of all, I updated the Robbie Thomas Solved Cases Counter today - you will notice that it now stands at 0 (zero) which, not surprisingly, is the way it has been for 18 years.  (For people who are interested in Robbie Thomas - there are a couple great links at the bottom of this article - and I've blogged about him a number of times.  Welcome!)

Robbie Thomas is not psychic but there is a mystery that he can solve.  It is now known as "The Mystery of the Disappearing Show Dates" (hereinafter referred to as "The Mystery").

The Mystery began this morning when I visited Robbie Thomas' site (http://www.robbiethomas.net/) and noticed that he has changed his site (surprise, surprise!) - and with the changes are a couple new "shows" added.  Dates have not been selected for the shows but the cities (and apparently the theatres/locations) have been.  You can pre-register so you will be notified about the show when they confirm all of the details.  The "pre-register" component of the website may or may not be related to The Mystery.

A previous "capture" of the Robbie Thomas (dot) net website shows the following:

Today, however, the site shows:

The Mystery, then, is where did the Toronto, London and Niagara dates go?

Robbie Thomas - do you care to explain?  It can't simply be that the show wasn't selling well because I was able to confirm that at one location (at least), less than 10 tickets were sold.  Oh, whoops, maybe that was the reason? Crap, so it's not a mystery after all?

At least the Sarnia show is selling really well.  At most, 31 tickets have been sold for the Sarnia show - I was not able to determine how many of those 31 tickets were reserved tickets by/for Robbie Thomas but I do know that at least 4 of them were purchased by people who, to put it nicely, are skeptical of Robbie.

For Robbie Thomas giggles, visit:
http://skepticblog.org/2010/02/13/robo-psychic/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiT83ed3aTk

Updated:
For the not so funny side of Robbie Thomas, see:
http://reapstruth.blogspot.com/2010/02/real-robbie-thomas.html
(Thanks "Reap".)

Homeopathy is just plain silly

I won't go into deep details on Homeopathy (how it was invented, where and by who, etc.) but look, briefly, at what it is and claims to be.

Homeopathy is based on the idea of "like cures like". For instance, if eating hot peppers makes you sweat then hot peppers should cure excessive sweating. Homeopathy suggests taking a small amount of the "active ingredient" (ie. hot pepper) and diluting it to 10% and then taking the resulting solution and diluting it to 10% again and then taking the resulting solution... sometimes hundreds and hundreds of times. The solution, by homeopathic claims, becomes more "potent" with each dilution. They suggest that water "has a memory" of the original ingredient. A drop of that "water" is often then put onto a sugar pill (pillule) and sold as a homeopathic "cure" or "treatment" for a vast number of symptoms/diseases.

Some homeopaths might claim there is more to it than that but there truly isn't. 

The initial premise is "like cures like" and, unfortunately, there is no evidence to support this. From a critical thought standpoint, why should someone even suppose this to be the case? The logic does not follow and it goes against much of what we know from modern science.

Assuming that the initial premise was even plausible, the next stage of diluting it to the point where the likelihood of finding a single molecule of the original "ingredient" in the resulting solution is so tiny that it almost certainly isn't there, has to raise questions.

To solve that logical problem, homeopaths often claim that water has a memory. "Easy", they say, the water "remembers". If the water has a memory, how does it know what to remember? Does it remember any of the soap particles or dust it might have come in contact with at some point in just this process? What about from before that process - when it was in a sewage treatment plant or passed through the bodies of animals?

Sound silly? There's more. Homeopaths claim that the more diluted the substance is, the more effective the treatment is. If this is true, you could overdose by simply taking too little - simply by drinking too much water when you swallow the pillule.

A 30C dilution (Hahnemann, the guy who 'made up' Homeopathy, often advocated this dilution) would, on average, require giving two billion doses per second to six billion people for 4 billion years to deliver a single molecule of the original material to any patient. (See ScienceBasedPharmacy)

And that's just plain silly.

Other reading on Homeopathy:

Edzard Ernst and Michael Baum have an excellent article in the Journal of American Medicine, Should we maintain an open mind about Homeopathy?

Recently (on January 30, 2010), to show the absurdity of Homeopathy, skeptics swallowed entire bottles of homeopathic remedies - with no ill effects (maybe a rise in blood sugar from the sugar pills). 

See:
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2010/01/1023-homeopathy-and-shame-of-pharmacy.html

http://www.1023.org.uk/

http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2010/01/homeopathy-by-the-mindboggling-numbers.html

Robbie Thomas Solved Cases Update

Solved Cases By Year
2010: 0
2009: 0
2008: 0
2007: 0
2006: 0
2005: 0
2004: 0
2003: 0
2002: 0
2001: 0
2000: 0
1999: 0
1998: 0
1997: 0
1996: 0
1995: 0
1994: 0
1993: 0

Total Solved Cases: 0
Yearly Average: 0

Last update: Feb 4, 2010 12:11:28 PM (EST)

I'd rather you think than not believe

It is definitely true that we all hold on to our own irrational beliefs - that applies to even the most seasoned skeptic. I once believed that if I could simply show people the evidence, they'd change their mind (that's pretty crazy!) - and I still try, to this day, to present the evidence to people in hopes of them seeing the light.

The point of this posting is more out of frustration - simply because you're an atheist doesn't mean we're anything alike. On top of that, being an atheist doesn't make you a skeptic. It makes you an atheist - and as they say, atheism is nothing to believe in. It's a non-belief - we simply share a lack of something.

As a fairly outspoken atheist in my social circles, I'm often confronted by "believers" or "friended" by other atheists and I'll, shamefully, admit that I'm not, often, impressed by the beliefs (or non-belief, in a sense) of some atheists. And, for that, I must explain.

Atheism, as I've mentioned many times is a non-belief - a lack of belief - and hardly suggests a true commonality. With atheism, there are no dogmatic beliefs, there is no doctrine and there are no core elements. We simply don't believe that a god or gods exist.

I would like to associate "atheism" with the idea of real "truth" and rational thought. I would like it to be the hallmark of properly applied skepticism but it is far from that.

The sad reality is that I know (too many) atheists who are not at all skeptical - some believe in homeopathy and naturopathy and others in psychics and other forms of the paranormal. You are "my kind" of atheist when you've reasoned yourself into non-belief and you use reason as your primary method of navigating through the non-sense. Mind you, as my wife can tell you, "my kind" of atheist probably can seem "cold" or to lack feelings at times. Oh well, sometimes the truth isn't all that pleasant but I'd rather the truth than some false sense of comfort.

Whatever other beliefs (or non-beliefs) that you hold, if they make you vote irrationally, spread falsities and lies and distort science and medicine out of sheer ignorance, I'm probably going to suggest to you that you're not a skeptic or a "reasonable" atheist. Because you can see the absurdity of sky-fairy belief does not make you a rational thinker or an expert at discerning the "truth".

No matter what it is that you accept or "believe", what is it that leads you to "believe" that? If you don't have reason to believe something, speaking about it with certainty makes you a fool - no matter what god/gods you do or don't believe in.

Just think - it'll do us all a whole lot of good.

12 Years Later - Lancet Fully Retracts Study Linking MMR Vaccine to Autism

That is great news.

Unfortunately, it shouldn't be breaking news in 2010.  The scientific community knew that the overwhelming evidence clearly contradicted the claims made by Andrew Wakefield.  If only people would now give up the false claims and admit that vaccination does not cause ASD.  Science is self-correcting and, obviously, capable of outing frauds.  It's a shame that anti-vaxxers aren't so correctable.