Seriously, can we just not waste time and money on stuff that isn’t possible?

This is fascinating. Steven Novella and David Gorski wrote an opinion article questioning whether it’s worthwhile to do clinical trials on medical modalities that don’t have any prior scientific plausibility, such as homeopathy and reiki. Basically, it’s an extension of their promotion of science-based medicine (which uses a Bayesian analysis of what we actually know throughout the sciences) versus evidence-based medicine (which just relies on the examination of the evidence in a specific experiment). And they’re getting flack about it – from people who thoroughly misunderstand their position.

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Irreverent Skeptics Podcast Episode 15 – Who are we? And how did we get here?

On March 22, 2014, Jon, the two Mikes, and Erno had a chat about their backgrounds with regard to religion, science, and skepticism, and how the podcast itself came to be.

Special guest Adam Reakes, host of the Herd Mentality Podcast, joined Jon, Brandi, and Erno to talk about his show and share some good news about how the Australian Vaccination Network, a group that spreads misinformation and helps spark outbreaks of preventable diseases in Australia, faced some serious legal challenges. We also discussed how insurance covers woo-woo treatments such as chiropractic and homeopathy, and how this gives them an unearned air of legitimacy. Adam also had exciting news about a project he’s working on that every exorcist is sure to love!

The intro music for the interview is “Go” by Guineo (David Ramírez and Avelino Herrera). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Generic License. Find the original at http://guineo.atlantes.org/guineo%20-%20go.mp3.

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