List of topics characterized as pseudoscience: Difference between revisions
Undid revision 254901121 by Jim Butler (talk) so see talk then. It's explained clearly and you haven't responded. |
|||
Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
Some subjects in this list may be questioned aspects of otherwise legitimate fields of research, or have legitimate ongoing scientific research associated with them. For instance, while some proposed explanations for [[hypnosis]] have been criticized for being pseudoscientific, the phenomenon is generally accepted as real and scientific explanations exist. |
Some subjects in this list may be questioned aspects of otherwise legitimate fields of research, or have legitimate ongoing scientific research associated with them. For instance, while some proposed explanations for [[hypnosis]] have been criticized for being pseudoscientific, the phenomenon is generally accepted as real and scientific explanations exist. |
||
⚫ | |||
==Pseudoscientific concepts per scientific consensus== |
|||
⚫ | <!---Please note that due to the controversial nature of the label "Pseudoscience, we must demand a reliable source from an appropriate authority (in this section, notable skeptics or skeptical bodies) in order to include it. If something seems to be obviously pseudoscience, then either such a source likely exists somewhere or it isn't notable enough to warrant inclusion. Any unsourced entries will be removed in order to keep this list clear of original research and possible NPOV violations. |
||
{{see also|Scientific consensus}} |
|||
The following have broad consensus concerning their [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] status. Indicative of this are assertions by mainstream, specialized scientific bodies (e.g., a society of [[plasma physics|plasma physicists]]) or one or more national- or regional-level [[Academy of Sciences|Academies of Science]]. |
|||
⚫ | --->The following list is of subjects that have aspects which were judged by one or more independent mainstream groups to be [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]]. Indicative of this are assertions by mainstream, specialized scientific bodies or one or more national- or regional-level [[Academy of Sciences|Academies of Science]], or notable [[scientific skepticism|skeptical]] bodies such as the [[CSICOP|Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] (formerly CSICOP) to this effect. Some of these items are not considered pseudoscientific by these groups in and of themselves: only certain aspects, explanations, and/or applications of them have been thus classified. (See an item's description text for more information on this.) |
||
===Astronomy and Space sciences=== |
|||
*'''[[Apollo moon landing hoax accusations]]''' made by a small number of people claiming that parts of the [[Apollo program]] were hoaxed and subsequently covered up. While many of the accusations are best categorized under [[conspiracy theories]], some do attempt to use faulty science to prove that the moon landing couldn't have happened, qualifying them as pseudoscience.<ref name="[a]">article on the website of the [[Astronomical Society of the Pacific]].[http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/pseudobib.html]</ref><ref name='moon_NASA'> {{cite web|url=http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/News/2001/News-MoonLanding.asp |title=The Moon Landing Hoax |accessdate=2007-12-02 |last=Knier |first=Gil |coauthors=Becky Bray |date=2001-03-30 |publisher=NASA }} "Did we actually send humans to the Moon in the 1960's? Of course we did!" </ref> |
*'''[[Apollo moon landing hoax accusations]]''' made by a small number of people claiming that parts of the [[Apollo program]] were hoaxed and subsequently covered up. While many of the accusations are best categorized under [[conspiracy theories]], some do attempt to use faulty science to prove that the moon landing couldn't have happened, qualifying them as pseudoscience.<ref name="[a]">article on the website of the [[Astronomical Society of the Pacific]].[http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/pseudobib.html]</ref><ref name='moon_NASA'> {{cite web|url=http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/News/2001/News-MoonLanding.asp |title=The Moon Landing Hoax |accessdate=2007-12-02 |last=Knier |first=Gil |coauthors=Becky Bray |date=2001-03-30 |publisher=NASA }} "Did we actually send humans to the Moon in the 1960's? Of course we did!" </ref> |
||
*'''[[Astrology]]''' refers to any of several systems of understanding, interpreting and organizing knowledge about reality and human existence, based on the relative positions and movement of various real and construed celestial bodies.<ref name='Astro_ASP'> {{cite web|url=http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/act3/astrology.html |title=The Universe At Your Fingertips Activity: Activities With Astrology |accessdate=2007-12-03 |publisher=Astronomical Society of the Pacific }} "These activities help students to understand the difference between science and pseudoscience by investigating some of astrology's claims." </ref><ref name="[c]">statement from the [[California Academy of Sciences]].[http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/8408_statements_from_scientific_and_12_19_2002.asp#calacad]</ref><ref name="[i]">statement from the [[Iowa Academy of Science]].[http://www.iacad.org/download/positionstatements/ias_statement_psudoscience.pdf]</ref><ref name="[r]">statement from the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]].[http://www.ufn.ru/ufn99/ufn99_5/ufn995h.pdf]</ref><ref name='astrology_NSF'>{{cite book | last = National Science Board | first = | authorlink = National Science Foundation | coauthors = | title = Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002 | publisher = National Science Foundation | year = 2002 | location = Arlington, VA | pages = ch. 7 | url = http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0160665790 }} "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... More than 25 percent of the public believes in astrology, that is, that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives." </ref> |
*'''[[Astrology]]''' refers to any of several systems of understanding, interpreting and organizing knowledge about reality and human existence, based on the relative positions and movement of various real and construed celestial bodies.<ref name='Astro_ASP'> {{cite web|url=http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/act3/astrology.html |title=The Universe At Your Fingertips Activity: Activities With Astrology |accessdate=2007-12-03 |publisher=Astronomical Society of the Pacific }} "These activities help students to understand the difference between science and pseudoscience by investigating some of astrology's claims." </ref><ref name="[c]">statement from the [[California Academy of Sciences]].[http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/8408_statements_from_scientific_and_12_19_2002.asp#calacad]</ref><ref name="[i]">statement from the [[Iowa Academy of Science]].[http://www.iacad.org/download/positionstatements/ias_statement_psudoscience.pdf]</ref><ref name="[r]">statement from the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]].[http://www.ufn.ru/ufn99/ufn99_5/ufn995h.pdf]</ref><ref name='astrology_NSF'>{{cite book | last = National Science Board | first = | authorlink = National Science Foundation | coauthors = | title = Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002 | publisher = National Science Foundation | year = 2002 | location = Arlington, VA | pages = ch. 7 | url = http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0160665790 }} "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... More than 25 percent of the public believes in astrology, that is, that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives." </ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Creation science]]''' is the belief that the origin of everything in the [[universe]] is the result of a [[first cause]], brought about by a [[creator deity]], and that this thesis is supported by geological, biological, and other scientific evidence.<ref name="[a]" /><ref name="[c]" /><ref name="[i]" /><ref name="[x]">statement from the [[International Council for Science]].[http://www.icsu.org/3_mediacentre/INSIGHT_12_2005.html]</ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | **[[Intelligent design]] is a version of creation science<ref>[[wikisource:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/6:Curriculum, Conclusion#H. Conclusion|Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Conclusion]] "In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents." </ref> stated in secular terms, ''viz.'' that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."<ref>Discovery Institute, Center for Science and Culture. Questions about Intelligent Design: What is the theory of intelligent design? "''The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.''" [http://www.discovery.org/csc/topQuestions.php#questionsAboutIntelligentDesign Questions About Intelligent Design]</ref><ref name="[c]" /><ref name="[x]" /> |
||
⚫ | ***[[Irreducible complexity]] is the claim that some systems are so complex that they cannot have evolved from simpler systems. It is used by proponents of intelligent design to argue that evolution by [[natural selection]] alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism (an "Intelligent Designer") is required to explain the origins of life. |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | *'''[[Crop circles]]''' are geometric designs of crushed or knocked-over crops created in a field. Aside from skilled farmers or pranksters working through the night, explanations for their formation include UFOs and anomalous, tornado-like air currents.<ref name="[a]" /> The study of crop circles is termed "cerealogy" by proponents.<ref>[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0208/30/i_ins.01.html "They call it cerealogy"], CNN.com</ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Charmstone|Crystal healing]]''' is the belief that [[crystals]] have healing properties. Once common among pre-scientific and indigenous peoples, it has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity with the [[new age]] movement.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Edward|last=Campion|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|year=1993|title=Why Unconventional Medicine|doi=10.1056/NEJM199301283280413|volume=328|pages=282|pmid=8418412}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://skepdic.com/crystals.html |title=crystal power |accessdate=2007-07-28 |format= |work=The Skeptic's Dictionary|author=Carroll, Robert Todd }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Stephen S. Carey |title=A Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method |publisher=Wadsworth Publishing |location=Belmont, CA |year= |pages= |isbn=0-534-58450-0 |oclc= |doi=}}</ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Dianetics]]''' is [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s pseudoscience that purports to treat a hypothetical [[reactive mind]] by means of an [[E-meter]], a device which Hubbard was later legally forced to admit "does nothing".<ref>{{cite book | author=Christopher Riche Evans | title=[[Cults of Unreason]] | publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux | year=1974 | isbn=0-374-13324-7}} Chapter 6.</ref><ref>{{cite book | author=Russell Miller | title=Bare-faced messiah: The true story of L. Ron Hubbard | publisher=Key Porter}}</ref><ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/09/MNGO572ISD1.DTL Dr. Peter Banys] in the SF Chronicle</ref><ref>[http://skepdic.com/dianetic.html defined as pseudoscience] at [[Skeptic's Dictionary]]</ref><ref>"Dianetics, that unholy alliance of psychoanalysis and cybernetics, rates a special chapter." - ''Some Comments on Popular-Science Books'', John Pfeiffer, Science (New Series), Vol. 117, No. 3042 (Apr., 1953), pp. 399-403, referencing [[Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science]] by Martin Gardner</ref> |
||
*'''[[Dogon_people#Dogon_and_Sirius|Dogon people and Sirius B]]''' a series of claims that the Dogon tribe knew about the white dwarf companion of [[Sirius]] despite it being invisible to the naked eye.<ref name="[a]" /> |
*'''[[Dogon_people#Dogon_and_Sirius|Dogon people and Sirius B]]''' a series of claims that the Dogon tribe knew about the white dwarf companion of [[Sirius]] despite it being invisible to the naked eye.<ref name="[a]" /> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Erich Von Däniken]]''' proposed that Earth was visited by [[ancient astronauts]].<ref name="[a]" /> Such beings have been claimed to have initiated the rise of human civilization or provided significant technological assistance to various ancient civilizations.<ref name="[s]" /><ref name='AAstro_CSI'> {{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/sb/2007-03/egypt.html |title=Who Were the Ancient Engineers of Egypt? |accessdate=2007-12-01 |last=Trefil |first=James |date=2007-03 |work=Skeptical Briefs |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry }} "the pyramids, as impressive as they are, give no evidence at all for the presence of advanced technology at work in ancient Egypt." </ref> |
||
*'''[[Erich Von Däniken]]''' proposed that Earth was visited by [[ancient astronauts]].<ref name="[a]" /> |
|||
*The '''[[Face on Mars]]''' (in [[Cydonia Mensae]]) is a rock formation on Mars asserted to be evidence of intelligent, native life on the planet.<ref name="[a]" /> High resolution images taken recently show it to appear less face-like. It features prominently in the pseudoscientific speculations of [[Richard C. Hoagland]]. |
*The '''[[Face on Mars]]''' (in [[Cydonia Mensae]]) is a rock formation on Mars asserted to be evidence of intelligent, native life on the planet.<ref name="[a]" /> High resolution images taken recently show it to appear less face-like. It features prominently in the pseudoscientific speculations of [[Richard C. Hoagland]]. |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Homeopathy]]''' is the belief in giving a patient with symptoms of an illness extremely dilute solutions of substances that produce those same symptoms in healthy people given larger doses. These [[List of homeopathic preparations|preparations]] are often diluted beyond the point where any treatment molecule is likely to remain. Studies of homeopathic practice have been largely negative or inconclusive.<ref name='Homeopathy_Lancet_Goldacre'> {{cite journal|title=Benefits and Risks of Homoeopathy|journal=The Lancet|date=2007-11-17|first=Ben|last=Goldacre|coauthors=|volume=370|issue=|pages=1672|doi= 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61706-1|url=|format=|accessdate=2008-01-30 }} "Five large meta-analyses of homoeopathy trials have been done. All have had the same result: after excluding methodologically inadequate trials and accounting for publication bias, homoeopathy produced no statistically significant benefit over placebo." </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_BBC_Eggar'>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Homoeopathy's benefit questioned | date=2005-08-25 | publisher= | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4183916.stm | work =BBC News | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | language = }} "Professor Egger said: "We acknowledge to prove a negative is impossible. "But good large studies of homeopathy do not show a difference between the placebo and the homoeopathic remedy, whereas in the case of conventional medicines you still see an effect."" </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_Bandolier'>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Homeopathy: systematic review of systematic reviews | date= | publisher=Bandolier | url =http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/band116/b116-8.html | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | language = }} "None of these systematic reviews provided any convincing evidence that homeopathy was effective for any condition. The lesson was often that the best designed trials had the most negative result" </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_NCCAM1'> {{cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/ |title=Questions and Answers About Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-30 |date=2003-04 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine }} "In sum, systematic reviews have not found homeopathy to be a definitively proven treatment for any medical condition." </ref> No scientific basis for homeopathic principles has been substantiated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm#c7s5l2|title=Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding Science Fiction and Pseudoscience|publisher=[[National Science Foundation]]|author=[[CSICOP]], cited in National Science Board Subcommittee on Science & Engineering Indicators|year=2000|accessdate=2007-07-13}} </ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncahf.org/pp/homeop.html|title=NCAHF Position Paper on Homeopathy|publisher=National Council Against Health Fraud|year=1994|accessdate=2007-07-14}}</ref><ref name="Beyerstein">{{cite web|author=Beyerstein, BL|title=Distinguishing Science from Pseudoscience|year=1997|url=http://www.sfu.ca/~beyerste/research/articles/02SciencevsPseudoscience.pdf|accessdate=2007-07-14|format=PDF}}</ref><ref name='SAS_homeopathy'> {{cite web|url=http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/SenseAboutHomeopathy.pdf |title=Sense About Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-29 |last=Tyler |first=Chris |date=2006-09 |format=PDF |publisher=[[Sense About Science]] }} "The scientific evidence shows that homeopathy acts only as a placebo and there is no scientific explanation of how it could work any other way." </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_NCCAM2'> {{cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/ |title=Questions and Answers About Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-30 |date=2003-04 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine }} "a number of its key concepts do not follow the laws of science (particularly chemistry and physics)." </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_ACS'> {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_2_1x_What_is_Homeopathy_.asp |title=What is Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-30 |date=2000-01-05 |publisher=American Cancer Society }} "Most scientists say homeopathic remedies are basically water and can act only as placebos." </ref><ref name="BBC_Royal">"In a statement, the Royal College of Pathologists said they were "deeply alarmed" that the regulation of medicine had "moved away from science and clear information for the public"."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6085242.stm Scientists attack homeopathy move], BBC News, 25 October 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2008.</ref> |
||
*'''[[Immanuel Velikovsky]]''' proposed that ancient texts refer to the collision of astronomical bodies as in ''[[Worlds in Collision]]''.<ref name="[a]" /> |
*'''[[Immanuel Velikovsky]]''' proposed that ancient texts refer to the collision of astronomical bodies as in ''[[Worlds in Collision]]''.<ref name="[a]" /> |
||
*'''[[Lunar effect]]''' is the belief that the full moon influences human behavior.<ref name="[a]" /> |
*'''[[Lunar effect]]''' is the belief that the full moon influences human behavior.<ref name="[a]" /> |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | * |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | * |
||
⚫ | * |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | * |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | *'''[[Therapeutic touch]]''' is a form of [[vitalism]] where a practitioner, who may be also a nurse,<ref name='TT_CSI'> {{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/articles/therapeutic-touch/ |title="Therapeutic Touch" Fails a Rare Scientific Test |accessdate=2007-12-05 |last=Wallace |first=Sampson |coauthors=Lewis Vaughn |date=1998-03-24 |work=CSICOP News |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry }} "Despite this lack of evidence, TT is now supported by major nursing organizations such as the National League of Nurses and the American Nurses Association." </ref> passes his or her hands over and around a patient to "realign" or "rebalance" a putative energy field.<ref name="scientificamerican"/> A recent [[Cochrane Review]] concluded that "[t]here is no evidence that [Therapeutic Touch] promotes healing of acute wounds."<ref name='TT_Cochrane'> {{cite journal|title=Therapeutic touch for healing acute wounds|journal=Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews|date=2003/2006|first=DP|last=O'Mathuna|coauthors=RL Ashford|volume=2003|issue=4|pages=CD002766|doi= 10.1002/14651858.CD002766|url=http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab002766.html|format=|accessdate=2008-01-27 }}</ref> No biophysical basis for such an energy field has been found.<ref name='TT_QW_RN'> {{cite web|url=http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/tt2.html |title=Further Notes on Therapeutic Touch |accessdate=2007-12-05 |last=Courcey |first=Kevin |publisher=Quackwatch }} "What's missing from all of this, of course, is any statement by Krieger and her disciples about how the existence of their energy field can be demonstrated by scientifically accepted methods." </ref><ref name='TT_NCCAM'> {{cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm |title=Energy Medicine: An Overview |accessdate=2007-12-05 |date=2007-10-24 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine }} "neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means." </ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Perpetual motion]]''' is a class of proposed [[machine]]s that violate one of the [[Laws of Thermodynamics]]. Perpetual motion has been recognized as extrascientific since the late 18th century, but proposals and patents for such devices continue to be made to the present day.<ref name="[a]" /><ref name="[r]" /> <ref name="scientificamerican"/> |
||
⚫ | **[[Second law of thermodynamics|Free energy]] is a particular class of perpetual motion which purports to create energy (violating the [[first law of thermodynamics]]) or extract useful work from equilibrium systems (violating the [[second law of thermodynamics]]). Of particular note are proposals involving the extraction of [[zero point energy]], a real energy found in [[quantum mechanics]] that cannot be used to do [[work (physics)|work]].<ref name="scientificamerican"/> |
||
⚫ | **[[Water-fuelled car]]s are an instance of perpetual motion machines.<ref name=WFC_Ball>{{cite web| last= Ball| first=Philip| authorlink = Philip Ball| title=Burning water and other myths| url= http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070910/full/070910-13.html| work= [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] News| date= [[September 14]], [[2007]]| accessdate= 2008-08-19}}</ref> Such devices are claimed to use water as fuel or produce fuel from water onboard with no other energy input. |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Quantum mysticism]]''' builds on a superficial similarity between certain [[New Age]] concepts and such seemingly counter-intuitive [[quantum mechanics|quantum mechanical]] concepts as the [[indeterminacy principle]], [[quantum entanglement|entanglement]], and [[wave–particle duality]], while generally ignoring the limitations imposed by [[quantum decoherence]].<ref name="[s]" /><ref>{{cite book | last = Park | first = Robert L. | authorlink = Robert L. Park | coauthors = | title = Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2000 | location = New York, New York | pages = 39 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-19-513515-6 }} "[People] long to be told that modern science validates the teachings of some ancient scripture or New Age guru. The purveyors of pseudoscience have been quick to exploit their ambivalence." </ref><ref name='QMyst_Stenger'>{{cite news | first=Victor J. | last=Stenger | coauthors= | title=Quantum Quackery | date=1997-01 | publisher=[[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] | url =http://csicop.org/si/9701/quantum-quackery.html | work =[[Skeptical Inquirer]] | pages = | accessdate = 2008-02-07 | language = }} "Capra's book was an inspiration for the New Age, and "quantum" became a buzzword used to buttress the trendy, pseudoscientific spirituality that characterizes this movement." </ref><ref name='QMyst_Gell-Mann'>{{cite book | last = Gell-Mann | first = Murray | authorlink = [[Murray Gell-Mann]] | coauthors = | title = The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and Complex | publisher = Macmillan | year = 1995 | location = | pages = 168 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0805072535 }} "Then the conclusion has been drawn that quantum mechanics permits faster-than-light communication, and even tha claimed "paranormal" phenomena like precognition are thereby made respectable! How can this have happened?" </ref><ref name='QMyst_PhysTod'>{{cite news | first=Fred | last=Kuttner | coauthors= Bruce Rosenblum | title=Teaching physics mysteries versus pseudoscience | date=2006-11 | publisher=[[American Institute of Physics]] | url =http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-11/p14.html | work =Physics Today | pages = | accessdate = 2008-02-08 | language = }} "We should not underestimate how persuasively physics can be invoked to buttress mystical notions. We physicists bear some responsibility for the way our discipline is exploited." </ref> One of the most abused ideas is [[Bell's theorem]], which proves the nonexistence of local hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Despite this, Bell himself resisted mystical interpretations of the theory.<ref name='QMyst_Bell'>{{cite book | last = Bell | first = J. S. | authorlink = John Stewart Bell | coauthors = | title = Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1988 | location = | pages = 170 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0521523389 }} "So I think it is not right to tell the public that a central role for conscious mind is integrated into modern atomic physics. Or that 'information' is the real stuff of physical theory. It seems to me irresponsible to suggest that technical features of contemporary theory were anticipated by the saints of ancient religions ... by introspection." </ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Ufology]]''' is the study of [[unidentified flying objects]] (UFO) and frequently includes the belief that UFOs are evidence for [[extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] visitors.<ref name="[a]" /><ref name="[i]" /> <ref name="scientificamerican">[http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED460829&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8006f304 Scientific American]</ref><ref name="[s]" /><ref name='UFO_NSF'>{{cite book | last = National Science Board | first = | authorlink = National Science Foundation | coauthors = | title = Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002 | publisher = National Science Foundation | year = 2002 | location = Arlington, VA | pages = ch. 7 | url = http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0160665790 }} "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... A sizable minority of the public believes in UFOs and that aliens have landed on Earth." </ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | <!---Please note that due to the controversial nature of the label "Pseudoscience, we must demand a reliable source from an appropriate authority (in this section, notable skeptics or skeptical bodies) in order to include it. If something seems to be obviously pseudoscience, then either such a source likely exists somewhere or it isn't notable enough to warrant inclusion. Any unsourced entries will be removed in order to keep this list clear of original research and possible NPOV violations. |
||
⚫ | --->The following |
||
===Earth and Earth sciences=== |
===Earth and Earth sciences=== |
||
Line 58: | Line 24: | ||
===Paranormal and Ufology=== |
===Paranormal and Ufology=== |
||
⚫ | [[Paranormal]] subjects<ref name="[a]" /><ref name="[r]" /><ref>[http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind00/access/c8/c8s5.htm Indicators 2000 - Chapter 8: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding - Belief in the Paranormal or Pseudoscience<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name="Beyerstein"/> have been subject to critiques from a wide range of sources including the following claims of paranormal significance: |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | * |
||
*'''[[Animal mutilations]]''' are cases of animals, primarily domestic livestock, with seemingly unexplainable wounds. These wounds have been said to be caused by natural predation, extra terrestrials, cults, or covert government organizations.<ref name="[s]" /> |
*'''[[Animal mutilations]]''' are cases of animals, primarily domestic livestock, with seemingly unexplainable wounds. These wounds have been said to be caused by natural predation, extra terrestrials, cults, or covert government organizations.<ref name="[s]" /> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Channelling (mediumistic)|Channeling]]''' is the communication of information to or through a person allegedly from a spirit or other paranormal entity.<ref>[http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding - Science Fiction and Pseudoscience]</ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Crop circles]]''' are geometric designs of crushed or knocked-over crops created in a field. Aside from skilled farmers or pranksters working through the night, explanations for their formation include UFOs and anomalous, tornado-like air currents.<ref name="[a]" /> The study of crop circles is termed "cerealogy" by proponents.<ref>[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0208/30/i_ins.01.html "They call it cerealogy"], CNN.com</ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | *'''[[Electronic voice phenomenon]]''' is the alleged communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices.<ref>http://parapsych.org/glossary_e_k.html#e Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved January 24, 2006</ref><ref name=alcock1>{{cite web | last = Alcock | first = James E | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Electronic Voice Phenomena:Voices of the Dead? | work = | publisher = Committee for Skeptical Inquiry | date = | url = http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/evp.html | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-03-08 }}</ref><ref name="Carroll 2003">Carroll, Robert Todd, ''[[The Skeptic's Dictionary]]'' 2003, Wiley Publishing Company, ISBN 0471272426</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Shermer |first=Michael |title=Turn Me On, Dead Man |year=2005 |month=May |publisher=[[Scientific American]] |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000EB977-12BE-1264-8F9683414B7FFE9F |accessdate=2007-02-28}}</ref><ref>Terrence Hines, ''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence'', Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 1988. ISBN 0-87975-419-2.Thagard (1978) ''op cit'' 223 ''ff''</ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Extra-sensory perception]]''' is the paranormal ability (independent of the five main [[sense]]s or deduction from previous experience) to acquire information by means such as [[telepathy]], [[clairvoyance]], [[precognition]], [[psychic|psychic abilities]], and [[remote viewing]].<ref>[http://parapsych.org/glossary_e_k.html#e Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology], Retrieved December 24, 2006</ref><ref>"[http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=extrasensory%20perception extrasensory perception]" Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. </ref><ref>[http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding - Science Fiction and Pseudoscience]</ref><ref name='ESP_NSF'>{{cite book | last = National Science Board | first = | authorlink = National Science Foundation | coauthors = | title = Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002 | publisher = National Science Foundation | year = 2002 | location = Arlington, VA | pages = ch. 7 | url = http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0160665790 }} "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... At least half of the public believes in the existence of extrasensory perception (ESP)." </ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | *'''[[Psychic surgery]]''' is a type of medical fraud, popular in [[Brazil]] and the [[Philippines]]. Practitioners use sleight of hand to make it appear as though they are reaching into a patients body and extracting "tumours".<ref>{{cite book| last = Randi | first = James | authorlink = James Randi | year = 1989 | title = [[The Faith Healers]] | publisher = Prometheus Books | isbn = 0-87975-535-0 }}</ref><ref> David Vernon in ''Skeptical - a Handbook of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal'', ed [[Donald Laycock]], [[David Vernon (writer)|David Vernon]], [[Colin Groves]], [[Simon Brown]], Imagecraft, Canberra, 1989, ISBN 0731657942, p47 </ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/184 |title="Psychic surgery" -- 40 (3): 184 -- CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians |accessdate=2007-07-28 |format= |work=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.skepdic.com/psurgery.html |title=Psychic Surgery |accessdate=2007-07-28 |work=The Skeptic's Dictionary|format= |author=Carroll, Robert Todd }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filipinoreporter.com/archive/3327/headline03.htm |title= Psychic surgeon charged |date=June 17-23, 2005 |accessdate=2007-07-28 |format= |work=The Filipino Reporter}}</ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | *'''[[Therapeutic touch]]''' is a form of [[vitalism]] where a practitioner, who may be also a nurse,<ref name='TT_CSI'> {{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/articles/therapeutic-touch/ |title="Therapeutic Touch" Fails a Rare Scientific Test |accessdate=2007-12-05 |last=Wallace |first=Sampson |coauthors=Lewis Vaughn |date=1998-03-24 |work=CSICOP News |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry }} "Despite this lack of evidence, TT is now supported by major nursing organizations such as the National League of Nurses and the American Nurses Association." </ref> passes his or her hands over and around a patient to "realign" or "rebalance" a putative energy field.<ref name="scientificamerican"/> A recent [[Cochrane Review]] concluded that "[t]here is no evidence that [Therapeutic Touch] promotes healing of acute wounds."<ref name='TT_Cochrane'> {{cite journal|title=Therapeutic touch for healing acute wounds|journal=Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews|date=2003/2006|first=DP|last=O'Mathuna|coauthors=RL Ashford|volume=2003|issue=4|pages=CD002766|doi= 10.1002/14651858.CD002766|url=http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab002766.html|format=|accessdate=2008-01-27 }}</ref> No biophysical basis for such an energy field has been found.<ref name='TT_QW_RN'> {{cite web|url=http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/tt2.html |title=Further Notes on Therapeutic Touch |accessdate=2007-12-05 |last=Courcey |first=Kevin |publisher=Quackwatch }} "What's missing from all of this, of course, is any statement by Krieger and her disciples about how the existence of their energy field can be demonstrated by scientifically accepted methods." </ref><ref name='TT_NCCAM'> {{cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm |title=Energy Medicine: An Overview |accessdate=2007-12-05 |date=2007-10-24 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine }} "neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means." </ref> |
||
*'''[[Tutankhamun|Tutankhamun's curse]]''' was allegedly placed on the discoverers of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, causing widespread deaths and other disastrous events.<ref name="[s]" /> |
*'''[[Tutankhamun|Tutankhamun's curse]]''' was allegedly placed on the discoverers of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, causing widespread deaths and other disastrous events.<ref name="[s]" /> |
||
*'''[[Tunguska event]]''' is an anomalous meteor strike said to actually be the impact of a miniature black hole or a large body composed of [[antimatter]], or [[Ball lightning]].<ref name="[s]" /> |
*'''[[Tunguska event]]''' is an anomalous meteor strike said to actually be the impact of a miniature black hole or a large body composed of [[antimatter]], or [[Ball lightning]].<ref name="[s]" /> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Ufology]]''' is the study of [[unidentified flying objects]] (UFO) and frequently includes the belief that UFOs are evidence for [[extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] visitors.<ref name="[a]" /><ref name="[i]" /> <ref name="scientificamerican">[http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED460829&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8006f304 Scientific American]</ref><ref name="[s]" /><ref name='UFO_NSF'>{{cite book | last = National Science Board | first = | authorlink = National Science Foundation | coauthors = | title = Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002 | publisher = National Science Foundation | year = 2002 | location = Arlington, VA | pages = ch. 7 | url = http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0160665790 }} "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... A sizable minority of the public believes in UFOs and that aliens have landed on Earth." </ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
===Philosophy and psychology=== |
===Philosophy and psychology=== |
||
Line 73: | Line 52: | ||
===Health and Medicine=== |
===Health and Medicine=== |
||
*'''[[Anthroposophic medicine]]''', or '''Anthroposophically extended medicine''', is a school of complementary medicine<ref name=vR>von Rohr et al., [http://www.smw.ch/docs/pdf/2000_34/2000-34-245.PDF "Experiences in the realisation |
*'''[[Anthroposophic medicine]]''', or '''Anthroposophically extended medicine''', is a school of complementary medicine<ref name=vR>von Rohr et al., [http://www.smw.ch/docs/pdf/2000_34/2000-34-245.PDF "Experiences in the realisation |
||
of a research project on anthroposophical medicine in patients with advanced cancer"], Schweiz Med Wochenschr 2000;130:1173–84</ref> founded in the 1920s by [[Rudolf Steiner]] in conjunction with Dr. Ita Wegman based on the spiritual philosophy of [[anthroposophy]]. Adherents practice a highly individualized [[holistic]] and [[salutogenesis|salutogenic]] approach to health, embracing a "Fourfold Path" of healing by considering the physical body, formative processes, consciousness, and biography (ego).<ref name="Anthroposophy_Klotter">Klotter, Jule (May 2006). "Anthroposophical Medicine". ''Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients'', '''24'''(1):274.</ref> Medications are formulated to stimulate healing by matching "key dynamic forces" with symptoms,<ref name='AM_holisticonline'> {{cite web|url=http://www.holisticonline.com/hol_miscellaneous.htm |title=Miscellaneous Holistic Remedies |accessdate=2008-02-09 |publisher=Holistic Online }}</ref> and prepared for external, oral, or parenteral introduction in various dilutions ranging from whole to [[Homeopathy|homeopathic]].<ref name='AM_IVAA'> {{cite web|url=http://www.ivaa.info/IVAA_new/anthroposophical_medicine.htm |title=The Position of Anthroposophic Medicine |accessdate=2008-02-09 |publisher=Internationale Vereinigung Anthroposophischer Ärztegesellschaften (International Federation of Anthroposophic Medical Associations) }} "Some medicines are similar to herbal medicinal products, some are prepared according to the guidelines of homeopathic pharmacopoeias." </ref> Skeptic [[Robert Todd Carroll|Robert Carroll]] likens to [[sympathetic magic]] the principle that curative plants may be identified by distortions or abnormalities in their morphology or physiology.<ref name='AM_Carroll'> {{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/anthroposophicmedicine.html |title=anthroposophic medicine |accessdate=2008-02-09 |last=Carroll |first=Robert |work=[[Skeptic's Dictionary]] }}</ref> |
of a research project on anthroposophical medicine in patients with advanced cancer"], Schweiz Med Wochenschr 2000;130:1173–84</ref> founded in the 1920s by [[Rudolf Steiner]] in conjunction with Dr. Ita Wegman based on the spiritual philosophy of [[anthroposophy]]. Adherents practice a highly individualized [[holistic]] and [[salutogenesis|salutogenic]] approach to health, embracing a "Fourfold Path" of healing by considering the physical body, formative processes, consciousness, and biography (ego).<ref name="Anthroposophy_Klotter">Klotter, Jule (May 2006). "Anthroposophical Medicine". ''Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients'', '''24'''(1):274.</ref> Medications are formulated to stimulate healing by matching "key dynamic forces" with symptoms,<ref name='AM_holisticonline'> {{cite web|url=http://www.holisticonline.com/hol_miscellaneous.htm |title=Miscellaneous Holistic Remedies |accessdate=2008-02-09 |publisher=Holistic Online }}</ref> and prepared for external, oral, or parenteral introduction in various dilutions ranging from whole to [[Homeopathy|homeopathic]].<ref name='AM_IVAA'> {{cite web|url=http://www.ivaa.info/IVAA_new/anthroposophical_medicine.htm |title=The Position of Anthroposophic Medicine |accessdate=2008-02-09 |publisher=Internationale Vereinigung Anthroposophischer Ärztegesellschaften (International Federation of Anthroposophic Medical Associations) }} "Some medicines are similar to herbal medicinal products, some are prepared according to the guidelines of homeopathic pharmacopoeias." </ref> Skeptic [[Robert Todd Carroll|Robert Carroll]] likens to [[sympathetic magic]] the principle that curative plants may be identified by distortions or abnormalities in their morphology or physiology.<ref name='AM_Carroll'> {{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/anthroposophicmedicine.html |title=anthroposophic medicine |accessdate=2008-02-09 |last=Carroll |first=Robert |work=[[Skeptic's Dictionary]] }}</ref> Carroll and others suggest that the system is out of touch with conventional medicine.<ref name='AM_Carroll'/><ref name='AM_Hanssonn'> {{cite journal|title=Is Anthroposophy Science?|journal=Conceptus|year=1991|first=Sven Ove|last=Hansson|coauthors=|volume=XXV|issue=64|pages=37–49|id= |format=|accessdate=2008-02-09 }} "Steiner also taught many other branches of knowledge, such as agriculture, medicine and education. His source of knowledge was always the same: His own clairvoyant visions." </ref> Practitioners give less significance to [[randomized controlled trial]]s, emphasizing balancing these with individualized diagnosis and treatment.<ref>Helmut Kiene, ''Complementary Methodology in Clinical Research - Cognition-based Medicine'', Springer Publishers: Heidelberg, New York. 2001. ISBN 3-540-41022-8</ref> Because promotion of self-healing is preferred, anthroposophical doctors and parents generally restrict or delay the use of vaccinations, antibiotics, and antipyretics; this restriction has been associated with a relative reduction in incidence of allergies in children being raised according to an anthroposophic lifestyle.<ref>Alm, J. S., Swartz, J., Lilja, G., Scheynius, A., and Pershagen, G. (1999). Atopy in children of families with an anthroposophic lifestyle. ''Lancet'', '''353'''(9163):1485-8. PMID 10232315 [http://www.waldorflibrary.org/journal_articles/rb5103.pdf Reprint copy]</ref><ref name='Anth_Floistrup'> {{cite journal|title=Allergic disease and sensitization in Steiner school children|journal=The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology|date=2006-01|first=Helen|last=Flöistrup|coauthors=Jackie Swartz, Anna Bergström, Johan S. Alm, Annika Scheynius, Marianne van Hage, Marco Waser, Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer, Dieneke Schram-Bijkerk, Machteld Huber, Anne Zutavern, Erika von Mutius, Ellen Üblagger, Josef Riedler, Karin B. Michaels, Göran Pershagen|volume=117|issue=1|pages=59–66|doi= 10.1016/j.jaci.2005.09.039|url=http://www.jacionline.org/article/PIIS0091674905021287/abstract|format=|accessdate=2008-03-03 }}</ref><ref>Klotter, Jule. "Anthroposophic lifestyle & allergies in children.(Shorts)." Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients 274 (May 2006): 24(2).</ref> No thorough scientific analysis of the efficacy of anthroposophical medicine as a system independent of its philosophical underpinnings has been undertaken; no evidence-based conclusion of the overall efficacy of the system can be made at this time.<ref>Ernst, Edzard, "Anthroposophical Medicine: A systematic review of randomised clinical trials." Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, ISSN 0043-5325, 2004, vol. 116, no4, pp. 128-130</ref> |
||
*'''[[Applied kinesiology]]''' is a means of medical diagnosis which proponents believe can identify health problems or nutritional deficiencies through practitioner assessment of external physical qualities such as muscle response, posture, or motion analysis. A variety of therapies are prescribed based on tested weakness or smoothness of muscle action and a conjectured viscerosomatic association between particular muscles and organs. The sole use of Applied Kinesiology to diagnose or treat any allergy<ref name='AK_MassMed'> {{cite web|url=http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search§ion=Advocacy_State&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=309 |title=Report of the Special Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medical Practitioners, In Opposition to the Licensure of Naturopaths |accessdate=2008-01-27 |format=PDF |publisher=Massachusetts Medical Society }} "Many of the means by which naturopaths diagnose these toxins and allergies are outright quackery: electrodiagnostic devices (banned by the FDA as worthless), hair analysis, applied kinesiology, iridology, and more." </ref> or illness<ref name='AK_ACS'> {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Applied_Kinesiology.asp |title=Applied Kinesiology |accessdate=2008-01-27 |date=2007-05-23 |publisher=American Cancer Society }} "Available scientific evidence does not support the claim that applied kinesiology can diagnose or treat cancer or other illness." </ref><ref name='AK_IntelliHealth'> {{cite web|url=http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8513/34968/358738.html?d=dmtContent |title=Applied Kinesiology |accessdate=2008-01-27 |date=2005-07-01 |publisher=Natural Standard }} "applied kinesiology has not been shown to be effective for the diagnosis or treatment of any disease." </ref> is not scientifically supported, and the International College of Applied Kinesiology requires concurrent use of standard diagnostic techniques.<ref name='AK_ICAK'> {{cite web|url=http://www.icak.com/college/status.shtml |title=Applied Kinesiology Status Statement |accessdate=2008-01-27 |date=1992-06-16 |publisher=International College of Applied Kinesiology }}</ref> Applied kinesiologists are often chiropractors, but may also be naturopaths, physicians, dentists, nutritionists, physical therapists, massage therapists, and nurses.<ref name="AK_ACS" /> Applied Kinesiology should not be confused with [[kinesiology]], the scientific study of human movement. |
*'''[[Applied kinesiology]]''' is a means of medical diagnosis which proponents believe can identify health problems or nutritional deficiencies through practitioner assessment of external physical qualities such as muscle response, posture, or motion analysis. A variety of therapies are prescribed based on tested weakness or smoothness of muscle action and a conjectured viscerosomatic association between particular muscles and organs. The sole use of Applied Kinesiology to diagnose or treat any allergy<ref name='AK_MassMed'> {{cite web|url=http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search§ion=Advocacy_State&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=309 |title=Report of the Special Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medical Practitioners, In Opposition to the Licensure of Naturopaths |accessdate=2008-01-27 |format=PDF |publisher=Massachusetts Medical Society }} "Many of the means by which naturopaths diagnose these toxins and allergies are outright quackery: electrodiagnostic devices (banned by the FDA as worthless), hair analysis, applied kinesiology, iridology, and more." </ref> or illness<ref name='AK_ACS'> {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Applied_Kinesiology.asp |title=Applied Kinesiology |accessdate=2008-01-27 |date=2007-05-23 |publisher=American Cancer Society }} "Available scientific evidence does not support the claim that applied kinesiology can diagnose or treat cancer or other illness." </ref><ref name='AK_IntelliHealth'> {{cite web|url=http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8513/34968/358738.html?d=dmtContent |title=Applied Kinesiology |accessdate=2008-01-27 |date=2005-07-01 |publisher=Natural Standard }} "applied kinesiology has not been shown to be effective for the diagnosis or treatment of any disease." </ref> is not scientifically supported, and the International College of Applied Kinesiology requires concurrent use of standard diagnostic techniques.<ref name='AK_ICAK'> {{cite web|url=http://www.icak.com/college/status.shtml |title=Applied Kinesiology Status Statement |accessdate=2008-01-27 |date=1992-06-16 |publisher=International College of Applied Kinesiology }}</ref> Applied kinesiologists are often chiropractors, but may also be naturopaths, physicians, dentists, nutritionists, physical therapists, massage therapists, and nurses.<ref name="AK_ACS" /> Applied Kinesiology should not be confused with [[kinesiology]], the scientific study of human movement. |
||
*'''[[Attachment therapy]]''' is a set of potentially fatal<ref name='J.Randi AT'> {{cite web|url=http://www.randi.org/jr/071604an.html#7 |title=Swift: Online Newsletter of the JREF |accessdate=2007-11-17 |last=Randi |first=James |date=2004-07-16 "This is a total quack procedure that has actually killed children." }}</ref> clinical interventions and parenting techniques aimed at controlling aggressive, disobedient, or unaffectionate children using "restraint and physical and psychological abuse to seek their desired results."<ref name='quackwatch_attatchment_therapy'> {{cite web|url=http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/at.html |title=Be Wary of Attachment Therapy |accessdate=2007-11-17 |last=Maloney |first=Shannon-Bridget }}</ref> Probably the most common form is holding therapy in which the child is restrained by adults for the purpose of supposed cathartic release of [[catharsis|suppressed rage]] and [[age regression in therapy|regression]]. Perhaps the most extreme, but much less common, is "[[rebirthing]]," in which the child is wrapped tightly in a blanket and then made to simulate emergence from a birth canal. This is done by encouraging the child to struggle and pushing and squeezing him/her to mimic contractions.<ref name="[s]" /> Despite its name it is not based on [[attachment theory]] or research.<ref name="Berlin et al"> Preface to "Enhancing Early Attachments. Theory, Research, Intervention and Policy." Duke series in child development and public policy. Eds. Lisa J. Berlin, Yair Ziv, Lisa Amaya-Jackson and Mark T. Greenberg Guilford Press ISBN 1-59385-470-6 p. xvii</ref> In 2006 it was the subject of an almost entirely critical Taskforce Report commissioned by the [[American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children]] (APSAC).<ref name="Chaffin">{{cite journal |author=Chaffin M, Hanson R, Saunders BE, ''et al'' |title=Report of the APSAC task force on attachment therapy, reactive attachment disorder, and attachment problems. |journal=Child Maltreat |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=76–89 |year=2006 |pmid=16382093 |doi=10.1177/1077559505283699}}</ref> |
*'''[[Attachment therapy]]''' is a set of potentially fatal<ref name='J.Randi AT'> {{cite web|url=http://www.randi.org/jr/071604an.html#7 |title=Swift: Online Newsletter of the JREF |accessdate=2007-11-17 |last=Randi |first=James |date=2004-07-16 "This is a total quack procedure that has actually killed children." }}</ref> clinical interventions and parenting techniques aimed at controlling aggressive, disobedient, or unaffectionate children using "restraint and physical and psychological abuse to seek their desired results."<ref name='quackwatch_attatchment_therapy'> {{cite web|url=http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/at.html |title=Be Wary of Attachment Therapy |accessdate=2007-11-17 |last=Maloney |first=Shannon-Bridget }}</ref> Probably the most common form is holding therapy in which the child is restrained by adults for the purpose of supposed cathartic release of [[catharsis|suppressed rage]] and [[age regression in therapy|regression]]. Perhaps the most extreme, but much less common, is "[[rebirthing]]," in which the child is wrapped tightly in a blanket and then made to simulate emergence from a birth canal. This is done by encouraging the child to struggle and pushing and squeezing him/her to mimic contractions.<ref name="[s]" /> Despite its name it is not based on [[attachment theory]] or research.<ref name="Berlin et al"> Preface to "Enhancing Early Attachments. Theory, Research, Intervention and Policy." Duke series in child development and public policy. Eds. Lisa J. Berlin, Yair Ziv, Lisa Amaya-Jackson and Mark T. Greenberg Guilford Press ISBN 1-59385-470-6 p. xvii</ref> In 2006 it was the subject of an almost entirely critical Taskforce Report commissioned by the [[American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children]] (APSAC).<ref name="Chaffin">{{cite journal |author=Chaffin M, Hanson R, Saunders BE, ''et al'' |title=Report of the APSAC task force on attachment therapy, reactive attachment disorder, and attachment problems. |journal=Child Maltreat |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=76–89 |year=2006 |pmid=16382093 |doi=10.1177/1077559505283699}}</ref> |
||
Line 98: | Line 77: | ||
|quote=a review of the theoretical foundations of Brain Gym and the associated peer-reviewed research studies failed to support the contentions of the promoters of Brain Gym®. Educators are encouraged to become informed consumers of research and to avoid implementing programming for which there is neither a credible theoretical nor a sound research basis. |
|quote=a review of the theoretical foundations of Brain Gym and the associated peer-reviewed research studies failed to support the contentions of the promoters of Brain Gym®. Educators are encouraged to become informed consumers of research and to avoid implementing programming for which there is neither a credible theoretical nor a sound research basis. |
||
|accessdate=2008-09-12}} |
|accessdate=2008-09-12}} |
||
</ref> |
</ref> [[Peer review]]ed scientific studies into Brain Gym have found no significant improvement in general academic skills. Its claimed results have been put down to the [[placebo]] effect and the benefits of breaks and exercise. Its founder, Paul Dennison, has admitted that many of Brain Gym's claims are not based good science, but on his "hunches".<ref> |
||
{{cite news |
{{cite news |
||
|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3671213.ece |
|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3671213.ece |
||
Line 106: | Line 85: | ||
|accessdate=2008-09-01 |
|accessdate=2008-09-01 |
||
|quote=Paul Dennison, a Californian educator who created the programme, admitted that many claims in his teacher’s guide were based on his 'hunches' and were not proper science.}}</ref> |
|quote=Paul Dennison, a Californian educator who created the programme, admitted that many claims in his teacher’s guide were based on his 'hunches' and were not proper science.}}</ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Charmstone|Crystal healing]]''' is the belief that [[crystals]] have healing properties. Once common among pre-scientific and indigenous peoples, it has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity with the [[new age]] movement.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Edward|last=Campion|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|year=1993|title=Why Unconventional Medicine|doi=10.1056/NEJM199301283280413|volume=328|pages=282|pmid=8418412}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://skepdic.com/crystals.html |title=crystal power |accessdate=2007-07-28 |format= |work=The Skeptic's Dictionary|author=Carroll, Robert Todd }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Stephen S. Carey |title=A Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method |publisher=Wadsworth Publishing |location=Belmont, CA |year= |pages= |isbn=0-534-58450-0 |oclc= |doi=}}</ref> |
||
*'''[[Chiropractic]]''' did not have serious research to test chiropractic theories until the 1970s, and was hampered by [[antiscientific]] and [[pseudoscientific]] ideas that sustained the profession in its long battle with organized medicine (examples, [[innate intelligence]]<ref>[http://www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=4 Chiropractic: Flagship of the Alternative Medicine Fleet, Part One] and [http://www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=5 Part Two] - by [[Steven Novella]] MD, and President of the [[New England Skeptical Society]] |
|||
:::''Innate intelligence'' {{cite journal |journal=J Can Chiropr Assoc |date=2002 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=10 |title=The Meanings of Innate |author=Joseph C. Keating, Jr |url=http://www.jcca-online.org/client/cca/JCCA.nsf/objects/Commentary+The+meanings+of+Innate/$file/3-Commentary%20Keating.pdf|format=PDF}}</ref> and [[ vertebral subluxation]]<ref>''Vertebral subluxation'' {{cite journal |journal= [[Chiropr Osteopat]] |date=2005 |volume=13 |pages=17 |title= Subluxation: dogma or science? |author= Keating JC Jr, Charlton KH, Grod JP, Perle SM, Sikorski D, Winterstein JF |doi=10.1186/1746-1340-13-17 |pmid=16092955 |url=http://chiroandosteo.com/content/13/1/17}}</ref>).<ref name=History-Primer/> By the mid 1990s there was a growing scholarly interest in chiropractic, which helped efforts to improve service quality and establish clinical guidelines that recommended manual therapies for acute low back pain.<ref name=History-Primer>{{cite web |title= Chiropractic history: a primer |author= Keating JC Jr, Cleveland CS III, Menke M |url=http://data.memberclicks.com/site/ahc/ChiroHistoryPrimer.pdf |format=PDF |date=2005 |accessdate=2008-06-16 |publisher= Association for the History of Chiropractic}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author= Keating JC Jr |journal= [[Skept Inq]] |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=37–43 |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n4_v21/ai_19727577 |title= Chiropractic: science and antiscience and pseudoscience side by side |date=1997 |accessdate=2008-10-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Campbell JB, Busse JW, Injeyan HS |title=Chiropractors and vaccination: A historical perspective |journal=Pediatrics |volume=105 |issue=4 |pages=E43 |year=2000 |month=April |pmid=10742364 |url=http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=10742364}}</ref> |
|||
*'''[[Electrical sensitivity|Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity]]''' (EHS) is a reported sensitivity to [[electric field|electric]] and [[magnetic field]]s or [[electromagnetic radiation]] of various frequencies at exposure levels well below established safety standards. Symptoms are inconsistent, but can include headache, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and similar non-specific indications.<ref name=rooslietal2004>{{cite journal | last = Roosli | first = Martin | coauthors = M Moser, Y Baldinini, M Meier, C Braun-Fahrlander | title = Symptoms of ill health ascribed to electromagnetic field exposure--a questionnaire survey | journal = Int J Hyg Environ Health | volume = 207 | issue = 2 | pages = 141–50 | month = February | year = 2004 | url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15031956 | doi = 10.1078/1438-4639-00269}}</ref> Provocation studies find that the discomfort of sufferers is unrelated to hidden sources of radiation,<ref name=rubinetal2005>{{cite journal | last = Rubin | first = G James | authorlink = | coauthors = Jayati Das Munshi, Simon Wessely | title = Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: A Systematic Review of Provocation Studies | journal = Psychosomatic Medicine | volume = 67 | pages = 224–232 | year = 2005 | doi = 10.1097/01.psy.0000155664.13300.64 | accessdate = | pmid = 15784787 }}</ref><ref name='BadScience EMF woo'> {{cite web|url=http://www.badscience.net/2007/06/electrosensitives-the-new-cash-cow-of-the-woo-industry/ |title=Electrosensitives: the new cash cow of the woo industry |accessdate=2007-11-17 |last=Goldacre |first=Ben }}</ref> and "no scientific basis currently exists for a connection between EHS and exposure to [electromagnetic fields]."<ref name='WHO EMF'> {{cite web|url=http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs296/en/index.html |title=Electromagnetic fields and public health |accessdate=2007-11-17 }}</ref> |
*'''[[Electrical sensitivity|Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity]]''' (EHS) is a reported sensitivity to [[electric field|electric]] and [[magnetic field]]s or [[electromagnetic radiation]] of various frequencies at exposure levels well below established safety standards. Symptoms are inconsistent, but can include headache, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and similar non-specific indications.<ref name=rooslietal2004>{{cite journal | last = Roosli | first = Martin | coauthors = M Moser, Y Baldinini, M Meier, C Braun-Fahrlander | title = Symptoms of ill health ascribed to electromagnetic field exposure--a questionnaire survey | journal = Int J Hyg Environ Health | volume = 207 | issue = 2 | pages = 141–50 | month = February | year = 2004 | url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15031956 | doi = 10.1078/1438-4639-00269}}</ref> Provocation studies find that the discomfort of sufferers is unrelated to hidden sources of radiation,<ref name=rubinetal2005>{{cite journal | last = Rubin | first = G James | authorlink = | coauthors = Jayati Das Munshi, Simon Wessely | title = Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: A Systematic Review of Provocation Studies | journal = Psychosomatic Medicine | volume = 67 | pages = 224–232 | year = 2005 | doi = 10.1097/01.psy.0000155664.13300.64 | accessdate = | pmid = 15784787 }}</ref><ref name='BadScience EMF woo'> {{cite web|url=http://www.badscience.net/2007/06/electrosensitives-the-new-cash-cow-of-the-woo-industry/ |title=Electrosensitives: the new cash cow of the woo industry |accessdate=2007-11-17 |last=Goldacre |first=Ben }}</ref> and "no scientific basis currently exists for a connection between EHS and exposure to [electromagnetic fields]."<ref name='WHO EMF'> {{cite web|url=http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs296/en/index.html |title=Electromagnetic fields and public health |accessdate=2007-11-17 }}</ref> |
||
*'''[[Faith healing]]''' is the act of curing disease by such means as [[prayer]] and [[laying on of hands]]. No material benefit in excess of that expected by [[placebo]] is observed.<ref name="[s]" /><ref name='faith_NSF'>{{cite book | last = National Science Board | first = | authorlink = National Science Foundation | coauthors = | title = Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002 | publisher = National Science Foundation | year = 2002 | location = Arlington, VA | pages = ch. 7 | url = http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0160665790 }} "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... Polls also show that one quarter to more than half of the public believes in ... faith healing." </ref><ref name='faith_CSI'> {{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/2005-01/congress.html |title=In the Land of Galileo, Fifth World Skeptics Congress Solves Mysteries, Champions Scientific Outlook |accessdate=2007-12-18 |last=Frazier |first=Kendrick |date=2005-01 |work=Skeptical Inquirer |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry }} "The majority of rigorous trials show no effect beyond placebo." (Edzard Ernst) </ref> |
*'''[[Faith healing]]''' is the act of curing disease by such means as [[prayer]] and [[laying on of hands]]. No material benefit in excess of that expected by [[placebo]] is observed.<ref name="[s]" /><ref name='faith_NSF'>{{cite book | last = National Science Board | first = | authorlink = National Science Foundation | coauthors = | title = Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002 | publisher = National Science Foundation | year = 2002 | location = Arlington, VA | pages = ch. 7 | url = http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0160665790 }} "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... Polls also show that one quarter to more than half of the public believes in ... faith healing." </ref><ref name='faith_CSI'> {{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/2005-01/congress.html |title=In the Land of Galileo, Fifth World Skeptics Congress Solves Mysteries, Champions Scientific Outlook |accessdate=2007-12-18 |last=Frazier |first=Kendrick |date=2005-01 |work=Skeptical Inquirer |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry }} "The majority of rigorous trials show no effect beyond placebo." (Edzard Ernst) </ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Homeopathy]]''' is the belief in giving a patient with symptoms of an illness extremely dilute solutions of substances that produce those same symptoms in healthy people given larger doses. These [[List of homeopathic preparations|preparations]] are often diluted beyond the point where any treatment molecule is likely to remain. Studies of homeopathic practice have been largely negative or inconclusive.<ref name='Homeopathy_Lancet_Goldacre'> {{cite journal|title=Benefits and Risks of Homoeopathy|journal=The Lancet|date=2007-11-17|first=Ben|last=Goldacre|coauthors=|volume=370|issue=|pages=1672|doi= 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61706-1|url=|format=|accessdate=2008-01-30 }} "Five large meta-analyses of homoeopathy trials have been done. All have had the same result: after excluding methodologically inadequate trials and accounting for publication bias, homoeopathy produced no statistically significant benefit over placebo." </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_BBC_Eggar'>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Homoeopathy's benefit questioned | date=2005-08-25 | publisher= | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4183916.stm | work =BBC News | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | language = }} "Professor Egger said: "We acknowledge to prove a negative is impossible. "But good large studies of homeopathy do not show a difference between the placebo and the homoeopathic remedy, whereas in the case of conventional medicines you still see an effect."" </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_Bandolier'>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Homeopathy: systematic review of systematic reviews | date= | publisher=Bandolier | url =http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/band116/b116-8.html | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | language = }} "None of these systematic reviews provided any convincing evidence that homeopathy was effective for any condition. The lesson was often that the best designed trials had the most negative result" </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_NCCAM1'> {{cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/ |title=Questions and Answers About Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-30 |date=2003-04 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine }} "In sum, systematic reviews have not found homeopathy to be a definitively proven treatment for any medical condition." </ref> No scientific basis for homeopathic principles has been substantiated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c7/c7s5.htm#c7s5l2|title=Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding Science Fiction and Pseudoscience|publisher=[[National Science Foundation]]|author=[[CSICOP]], cited in National Science Board Subcommittee on Science & Engineering Indicators|year=2000|accessdate=2007-07-13}} </ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncahf.org/pp/homeop.html|title=NCAHF Position Paper on Homeopathy|publisher=National Council Against Health Fraud|year=1994|accessdate=2007-07-14}}</ref><ref name="Beyerstein">{{cite web|author=Beyerstein, BL|title=Distinguishing Science from Pseudoscience|year=1997|url=http://www.sfu.ca/~beyerste/research/articles/02SciencevsPseudoscience.pdf|accessdate=2007-07-14|format=PDF}}</ref><ref name='SAS_homeopathy'> {{cite web|url=http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/SenseAboutHomeopathy.pdf |title=Sense About Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-29 |last=Tyler |first=Chris |date=2006-09 |format=PDF |publisher=[[Sense About Science]] }} "The scientific evidence shows that homeopathy acts only as a placebo and there is no scientific explanation of how it could work any other way." </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_NCCAM2'> {{cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/ |title=Questions and Answers About Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-30 |date=2003-04 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine }} "a number of its key concepts do not follow the laws of science (particularly chemistry and physics)." </ref><ref name='Homeopathy_ACS'> {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_2_1x_What_is_Homeopathy_.asp |title=What is Homeopathy |accessdate=2008-01-30 |date=2000-01-05 |publisher=American Cancer Society }} "Most scientists say homeopathic remedies are basically water and can act only as placebos." </ref><ref name="BBC_Royal">"In a statement, the Royal College of Pathologists said they were "deeply alarmed" that the regulation of medicine had "moved away from science and clear information for the public"."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6085242.stm Scientists attack homeopathy move], BBC News, 25 October 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2008.</ref> |
||
*'''[[Hypnosis]]''' is a state of extreme relaxation and inner focus in which a person is unusually responsive to suggestions made by the hypnotist. The modern practice has its roots in the idea of [[animal magnetism]], or mesmerism, originated by [[Franz Mesmer]].<ref name='Hypnosis_ACS'> {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Hypnosis.asp |title=Hypnosis |accessdate=2008-02-25 |publisher=[[American Cancer Society]] }}</ref> Though Mesmer's explanations were thoroughly discredited, hypnosis itself is today almost universally regarded as real.<ref name="Westen 2006"/><ref name="[s]" /> It is clinically useful for ''e.g.'' pain management, but some claimed uses of hypnosis outside of hypnotherapy clearly fall within the area of pseudoscience. Such areas include the use of hypnotic [[regression]] beyond plausible limits, including [[past life regression]].<ref name='Hypnosis_Lynn'> {{Citation| first=Steven Jay | last=Lynn| coauthors=Timothy Lock, Elizabeth Loftus, Elisa Krackow, and Scott O. Lilienfeld| contribution=The remembrance of things past: problematic memory recovery techniques in psychotherapy| title=Science and Pseudoscience in Psychotherapy| editor-first=Scott O.| editor-last=Lilienfeld| coeditors=Steven Jay Lynn, Jeffrey M. Lohr| publisher=Guilford Press| place=New York| pages=219–220| date=2003| year=| isbn = 1572308281| contribution-url=| format=| accessdate=2008-02-25 }} "hypnotically induced past life experiences are rule-governed, goal-directed fantasies that are context generated and sensitive to the demands of the hypnotic regression situation." </ref> Also see [[false memory syndrome]]. |
*'''[[Hypnosis]]''' is a state of extreme relaxation and inner focus in which a person is unusually responsive to suggestions made by the hypnotist. The modern practice has its roots in the idea of [[animal magnetism]], or mesmerism, originated by [[Franz Mesmer]].<ref name='Hypnosis_ACS'> {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Hypnosis.asp |title=Hypnosis |accessdate=2008-02-25 |publisher=[[American Cancer Society]] }}</ref> Though Mesmer's explanations were thoroughly discredited, hypnosis itself is today almost universally regarded as real.<ref name="Westen 2006"/><ref name="[s]" /> It is clinically useful for ''e.g.'' pain management, but some claimed uses of hypnosis outside of hypnotherapy clearly fall within the area of pseudoscience. Such areas include the use of hypnotic [[regression]] beyond plausible limits, including [[past life regression]].<ref name='Hypnosis_Lynn'> {{Citation| first=Steven Jay | last=Lynn| coauthors=Timothy Lock, Elizabeth Loftus, Elisa Krackow, and Scott O. Lilienfeld| contribution=The remembrance of things past: problematic memory recovery techniques in psychotherapy| title=Science and Pseudoscience in Psychotherapy| editor-first=Scott O.| editor-last=Lilienfeld| coeditors=Steven Jay Lynn, Jeffrey M. Lohr| publisher=Guilford Press| place=New York| pages=219–220| date=2003| year=| isbn = 1572308281| contribution-url=| format=| accessdate=2008-02-25 }} "hypnotically induced past life experiences are rule-governed, goal-directed fantasies that are context generated and sensitive to the demands of the hypnotic regression situation." </ref> Also see [[false memory syndrome]]. |
||
*'''[[Iridology]]''' is a means of medical diagnosis which proponents believe can identify and diagnose health problems through close examination of the markings and patterns of the [[Iris (anatomy)|iris]]. Practitioners divide the iris into 80-90 zones, each of which is connected to a particular body region or organ. This connection has not been scientifically validated, and disorder detection is neither selective nor specific.<ref name='iridology_IntelliHealth'> {{cite web|url=http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH?d=dmtContent&c=358826&p=~br,IHW/~st,24479/~r,WSIHW000/~b,*/ |title=Iridology |accessdate=2008-02-01 |date=2005-07-07 |publisher=[[Natural Standard]] }} "Research suggests that iridology is not an effective method to diagnose or help treat any specific medical condition." </ref><ref name="Ernst">Ernst E. Iridology: not useful and potentially harmful. ''Arch. Ophthalmol.'' 2000 Jan;'''118'''(1):''120-1''. PMID 10636425</ref><ref name='iridology_AMA'> {{cite web|url=http://www.ama-assn.org/apps/pf_new/pf_online?f_n=browse&doc=policyfiles/HnE/H-175.998.HTM |title=H-175.998 Evaluation of Iridology |accessdate=2008-02-01 |publisher=[[American Medical Association]] }} "Our AMA believes that iridology, the study of the iris of the human eye, has not yet been established as having any merit as a diagnostic technique." </ref> Because iris texture is a phenotypical feature which develops during gestation and remains unchanged after birth (which makes the iris useful for [[Biometrics]]), Iridology is all but impossible. |
*'''[[Iridology]]''' is a means of medical diagnosis which proponents believe can identify and diagnose health problems through close examination of the markings and patterns of the [[Iris (anatomy)|iris]]. Practitioners divide the iris into 80-90 zones, each of which is connected to a particular body region or organ. This connection has not been scientifically validated, and disorder detection is neither selective nor specific.<ref name='iridology_IntelliHealth'> {{cite web|url=http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH?d=dmtContent&c=358826&p=~br,IHW/~st,24479/~r,WSIHW000/~b,*/ |title=Iridology |accessdate=2008-02-01 |date=2005-07-07 |publisher=[[Natural Standard]] }} "Research suggests that iridology is not an effective method to diagnose or help treat any specific medical condition." </ref><ref name="Ernst">Ernst E. Iridology: not useful and potentially harmful. ''Arch. Ophthalmol.'' 2000 Jan;'''118'''(1):''120-1''. PMID 10636425</ref><ref name='iridology_AMA'> {{cite web|url=http://www.ama-assn.org/apps/pf_new/pf_online?f_n=browse&doc=policyfiles/HnE/H-175.998.HTM |title=H-175.998 Evaluation of Iridology |accessdate=2008-02-01 |publisher=[[American Medical Association]] }} "Our AMA believes that iridology, the study of the iris of the human eye, has not yet been established as having any merit as a diagnostic technique." </ref> Because iris texture is a phenotypical feature which develops during gestation and remains unchanged after birth (which makes the iris useful for [[Biometrics]]), Iridology is all but impossible. |
||
Line 118: | Line 102: | ||
===Religious and spiritual beliefs=== |
===Religious and spiritual beliefs=== |
||
Spiritual and religious practices and beliefs are normally not classified as pseudoscience.<ref>Carl Sagan, [http://www.godslasteraar.org/assets/ebooks/Sagan_Carl_Does_truth_matter_-_Science_pseudoscience_and_civilization_-_includes_related_articles.pdf "Does Truth Matter? Science, Pseudoscience, and Civilization"], Skeptical Inquirer, 1996</ref> |
Spiritual and religious practices and beliefs are normally not classified as pseudoscience.<ref>Carl Sagan, [http://www.godslasteraar.org/assets/ebooks/Sagan_Carl_Does_truth_matter_-_Science_pseudoscience_and_civilization_-_includes_related_articles.pdf "Does Truth Matter? Science, Pseudoscience, and Civilization"], Skeptical Inquirer, 1996</ref> The following have been related pseudoscience in some way, however: |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Creation science]]''' is the belief that the origin of everything in the [[universe]] is the result of a [[first cause]], brought about by a [[creator deity]], and that this thesis is supported by geological, biological, and other scientific evidence.<ref name="[a]" /><ref name="[c]" /><ref name="[i]" /><ref name="[x]">statement from the [[International Council for Science]].[http://www.icsu.org/3_mediacentre/INSIGHT_12_2005.html]</ref> |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | **[[Intelligent design]] is a version of creation science<ref>[[wikisource:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/6:Curriculum, Conclusion#H. Conclusion|Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Conclusion]] "In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents." </ref> stated in secular terms, ''viz.'' that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."<ref>Discovery Institute, Center for Science and Culture. Questions about Intelligent Design: What is the theory of intelligent design? "''The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.''" [http://www.discovery.org/csc/topQuestions.php#questionsAboutIntelligentDesign Questions About Intelligent Design]</ref><ref name="[c]" /><ref name="[x]" /> |
||
⚫ | ***[[Irreducible complexity]] is the claim that some systems are so complex that they cannot have evolved from simpler systems. It is used by proponents of intelligent design to argue that evolution by [[natural selection]] alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism (an "Intelligent Designer") is required to explain the origins of life. |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | *'''[[Dianetics]]''' is [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s pseudoscience that purports to treat a hypothetical [[reactive mind]] by means of an [[E-meter]], a device which Hubbard was later legally forced to admit "does nothing".<ref>{{cite book | author=Christopher Riche Evans | title=[[Cults of Unreason]] | publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux | year=1974 | isbn=0-374-13324-7}} Chapter 6.</ref><ref>{{cite book | author=Russell Miller | title=Bare-faced messiah: The true story of L. Ron Hubbard | publisher=Key Porter}}</ref><ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/09/MNGO572ISD1.DTL Dr. Peter Banys] in the SF Chronicle</ref><ref>[http://skepdic.com/dianetic.html defined as pseudoscience] at [[Skeptic's Dictionary]]</ref><ref>"Dianetics, that unholy alliance of psychoanalysis and cybernetics, rates a special chapter." - ''Some Comments on Popular-Science Books'', John Pfeiffer, Science (New Series), Vol. 117, No. 3042 (Apr., 1953), pp. 399-403, referencing [[Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science]] by Martin Gardner</ref> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Quantum mysticism]]''' builds on a superficial similarity between certain [[New Age]] concepts and such seemingly counter-intuitive [[quantum mechanics|quantum mechanical]] concepts as the [[indeterminacy principle]], [[quantum entanglement|entanglement]], and [[wave–particle duality]], while generally ignoring the limitations imposed by [[quantum decoherence]].<ref name="[s]" /><ref>{{cite book | last = Park | first = Robert L. | authorlink = Robert L. Park | coauthors = | title = Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2000 | location = New York, New York | pages = 39 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-19-513515-6 }} "[People] long to be told that modern science validates the teachings of some ancient scripture or New Age guru. The purveyors of pseudoscience have been quick to exploit their ambivalence." </ref><ref name='QMyst_Stenger'>{{cite news | first=Victor J. | last=Stenger | coauthors= | title=Quantum Quackery | date=1997-01 | publisher=[[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] | url =http://csicop.org/si/9701/quantum-quackery.html | work =[[Skeptical Inquirer]] | pages = | accessdate = 2008-02-07 | language = }} "Capra's book was an inspiration for the New Age, and "quantum" became a buzzword used to buttress the trendy, pseudoscientific spirituality that characterizes this movement." </ref><ref name='QMyst_Gell-Mann'>{{cite book | last = Gell-Mann | first = Murray | authorlink = [[Murray Gell-Mann]] | coauthors = | title = The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and Complex | publisher = Macmillan | year = 1995 | location = | pages = 168 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0805072535 }} "Then the conclusion has been drawn that quantum mechanics permits faster-than-light communication, and even tha claimed "paranormal" phenomena like precognition are thereby made respectable! How can this have happened?" </ref><ref name='QMyst_PhysTod'>{{cite news | first=Fred | last=Kuttner | coauthors= Bruce Rosenblum | title=Teaching physics mysteries versus pseudoscience | date=2006-11 | publisher=[[American Institute of Physics]] | url =http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-11/p14.html | work =Physics Today | pages = | accessdate = 2008-02-08 | language = }} "We should not underestimate how persuasively physics can be invoked to buttress mystical notions. We physicists bear some responsibility for the way our discipline is exploited." </ref> One of the most abused ideas is [[Bell's theorem]], which proves the nonexistence of local hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Despite this, Bell himself resisted mystical interpretations of the theory.<ref name='QMyst_Bell'>{{cite book | last = Bell | first = J. S. | authorlink = John Stewart Bell | coauthors = | title = Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1988 | location = | pages = 170 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0521523389 }} "So I think it is not right to tell the public that a central role for conscious mind is integrated into modern atomic physics. Or that 'information' is the real stuff of physical theory. It seems to me irresponsible to suggest that technical features of contemporary theory were anticipated by the saints of ancient religions ... by introspection." </ref> |
||
*The '''[[Shroud of Turin]]''' is a length of linen cloth believed by some members of the Christian community to have been Jesus' death shroud.<ref name="[s]" /> [[Radiocarbon dating]] of the original material has shown that it dates from the 13th or 14th century,<ref name='Turin Nature'> {{cite journal|title=Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin|journal=Nature|date=1989-02|first=P. E.|last=Damon|coauthors=D. J. Donahue, B. H. Gore, A. L. Hatheway, A. J. T. Jull, T. W. Linick, P. J. Sercel, L. J. Toolin, C. R. Bronk, E. T. Hall, R. E. M. Hedges, R. Housley, I. A. Law, C. Perry, G. Bonani, S. Trumbore, W. Woelfli, J. C. Ambers, S. G. E. Bowman, M. N. Leese, M. S. Tite|volume=337|issue=6208|pages=611–615|doi= 10.1038/337611a0|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v337/n6208/abs/337611a0.html|format=|accessdate=2007-11-18 }}</ref> though some claim that the material tested was not representative of the whole shroud.<ref name="Turin Rogers">Rogers, Raymond N.: "[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6THV-4DTBVHC-1&_user=10&_handle=B-WA-A-W-WE-MsSAYWA-UUA-AAUYYDZUYC-AAUZVCZYYC-YZEWAVVVC-WE-U&_fmt=full&_coverDate=01%2F20%2F2005&_rdoc=26&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%235292%232005%23995749998%23553672!&_cdi=5292&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3d89246a5d4144616be7657f0d83b6cf Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the shroud of turin]." ''Thermochimica Acta'', Volume 425, Issue 1–2 ([[January 20]] [[2005]]), pages 189–194</ref><ref name="Turin Ball">Ball, Philip. "To Know a Veil". ''Nature'' [http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050124/full/news050124-17.html online], 28 January 2005.</ref> Analyses of the paint and the herringbone twill weave of the cloth similarly point to a medieval origin.<ref name='Turin CSI'> {{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00455.html |title=PBS "Secrets of the Dead" Buries the Truth About Turin Shroud |accessdate=2007-11-18 |last=Nickell |first=Joe "the scientific approach allows the preponderance of evidence to lead to a conclusion: the shroud is the work of a medieval artisan" }}</ref> |
*The '''[[Shroud of Turin]]''' is a length of linen cloth believed by some members of the Christian community to have been Jesus' death shroud.<ref name="[s]" /> [[Radiocarbon dating]] of the original material has shown that it dates from the 13th or 14th century,<ref name='Turin Nature'> {{cite journal|title=Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin|journal=Nature|date=1989-02|first=P. E.|last=Damon|coauthors=D. J. Donahue, B. H. Gore, A. L. Hatheway, A. J. T. Jull, T. W. Linick, P. J. Sercel, L. J. Toolin, C. R. Bronk, E. T. Hall, R. E. M. Hedges, R. Housley, I. A. Law, C. Perry, G. Bonani, S. Trumbore, W. Woelfli, J. C. Ambers, S. G. E. Bowman, M. N. Leese, M. S. Tite|volume=337|issue=6208|pages=611–615|doi= 10.1038/337611a0|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v337/n6208/abs/337611a0.html|format=|accessdate=2007-11-18 }}</ref> though some claim that the material tested was not representative of the whole shroud.<ref name="Turin Rogers">Rogers, Raymond N.: "[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6THV-4DTBVHC-1&_user=10&_handle=B-WA-A-W-WE-MsSAYWA-UUA-AAUYYDZUYC-AAUZVCZYYC-YZEWAVVVC-WE-U&_fmt=full&_coverDate=01%2F20%2F2005&_rdoc=26&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%235292%232005%23995749998%23553672!&_cdi=5292&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3d89246a5d4144616be7657f0d83b6cf Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the shroud of turin]." ''Thermochimica Acta'', Volume 425, Issue 1–2 ([[January 20]] [[2005]]), pages 189–194</ref><ref name="Turin Ball">Ball, Philip. "To Know a Veil". ''Nature'' [http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050124/full/news050124-17.html online], 28 January 2005.</ref> Analyses of the paint and the herringbone twill weave of the cloth similarly point to a medieval origin.<ref name='Turin CSI'> {{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00455.html |title=PBS "Secrets of the Dead" Buries the Truth About Turin Shroud |accessdate=2007-11-18 |last=Nickell |first=Joe "the scientific approach allows the preponderance of evidence to lead to a conclusion: the shroud is the work of a medieval artisan" }}</ref> |
||
Line 124: | Line 119: | ||
*'''[[Hongcheng Magic Liquid]]''' is a pseudoscience incident in China where an inventor claimed that could turn water into a usable fuel by just adding a few drops of his "secret formula" liquid. The government and China and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] were alarmed by pseudoscience developments like this one and issued a joint proclamation condemning the recent decline of public education in science.<ref>[http://www.godslasteraar.org/assets/ebooks/Sagan_Carl_Does_truth_matter_-_Science_pseudoscience_and_civilization_-_includes_related_articles.pdf Does truth matter?], by [[Carl Sagan]] "[text of proclamation] activities of superstition and ignorance have been growing, and antiscience and pseudoscience cases have become frequent. Therefore, effective measures must be applied as soon as possible to strengthen public education in science." (pages 8-9)</ref> |
*'''[[Hongcheng Magic Liquid]]''' is a pseudoscience incident in China where an inventor claimed that could turn water into a usable fuel by just adding a few drops of his "secret formula" liquid. The government and China and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] were alarmed by pseudoscience developments like this one and issued a joint proclamation condemning the recent decline of public education in science.<ref>[http://www.godslasteraar.org/assets/ebooks/Sagan_Carl_Does_truth_matter_-_Science_pseudoscience_and_civilization_-_includes_related_articles.pdf Does truth matter?], by [[Carl Sagan]] "[text of proclamation] activities of superstition and ignorance have been growing, and antiscience and pseudoscience cases have become frequent. Therefore, effective measures must be applied as soon as possible to strengthen public education in science." (pages 8-9)</ref> |
||
*'''[[Laundry ball]]s''' are spherical or toroidal objects marketed as soap substitutes for washing machines.<ref name="[s]" /> |
*'''[[Laundry ball]]s''' are spherical or toroidal objects marketed as soap substitutes for washing machines.<ref name="[s]" /> |
||
⚫ | *'''[[Perpetual motion]]''' is a class of proposed [[machine]]s that violate one of the [[Laws of Thermodynamics]]. Perpetual motion has been recognized as extrascientific since the late 18th century, but proposals and patents for such devices continue to be made to the present day.<ref name="[a]" /><ref name="[r]" /> <ref name="scientificamerican"/> |
||
⚫ | **[[Second law of thermodynamics|Free energy]] is a particular class of perpetual motion which purports to create energy (violating the [[first law of thermodynamics]]) or extract useful work from equilibrium systems (violating the [[second law of thermodynamics]]). Of particular note are proposals involving the extraction of [[zero point energy]], a real energy found in [[quantum mechanics]] that cannot be used to do [[work (physics)|work]].<ref name="scientificamerican"/> |
||
⚫ | **[[Water-fuelled car]]s are an instance of perpetual motion machines.<ref name=WFC_Ball>{{cite web| last= Ball| first=Philip| authorlink = Philip Ball| title=Burning water and other myths| url= http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070910/full/070910-13.html| work= [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] News| date= [[September 14]], [[2007]]| accessdate= 2008-08-19}}</ref> Such devices are claimed to use water as fuel or produce fuel from water onboard with no other energy input. |
||
*'''[[Stock market prediction]]''' can involve prediction of stock prices using [[technical analysis]] techniques based purely on charts of past price behavior or patterns in various metrics.<ref name="[s]" /><ref name=Lo2000>{{cite journal | author = Lo, A.W. | coauthors = Mamaysky, H.; Wang, J. | year = 2000 | title = Foundations of Technical Analysis: Computational Algorithms, Statistical Inference, and Empirical Implementation | journal = The Journal of Finance | volume = 55 | issue = 4 | pages = 1705–1765 | doi = 10.1111/0022-1082.00265}}</ref> These techniques are dubiously justified, and violate the [[efficient market hypothesis]].<ref name=Malkiel>[[Burton Malkiel]], ''[[A Random Walk Down Wall Street]]''</ref> |
*'''[[Stock market prediction]]''' can involve prediction of stock prices using [[technical analysis]] techniques based purely on charts of past price behavior or patterns in various metrics.<ref name="[s]" /><ref name=Lo2000>{{cite journal | author = Lo, A.W. | coauthors = Mamaysky, H.; Wang, J. | year = 2000 | title = Foundations of Technical Analysis: Computational Algorithms, Statistical Inference, and Empirical Implementation | journal = The Journal of Finance | volume = 55 | issue = 4 | pages = 1705–1765 | doi = 10.1111/0022-1082.00265}}</ref> These techniques are dubiously justified, and violate the [[efficient market hypothesis]].<ref name=Malkiel>[[Burton Malkiel]], ''[[A Random Walk Down Wall Street]]''</ref> |
||
Revision as of 02:00, 30 November 2008
This is a list of fields of endeavor and concepts regarded as pseudoscientific by organizations within the international scientific community or by notable skeptical organizations. The existence of such expressed opinions suffices for inclusion in this list, and inclusion on this list does not necessarily indicate consensus for every entry.
Critics may have explicitly described a field or concept as "pseudoscience" or used synonyms, some of which are identified in the references section below. Also included are important concepts associated with the main entries, and concepts that, while notable and self-evidently pseudoscientific, have not elicited commentary from mainstream scientific bodies or skeptical organizations. Notable parodies of pseudoscientific concepts are also included.
Some subjects in this list may be questioned aspects of otherwise legitimate fields of research, or have legitimate ongoing scientific research associated with them. For instance, while some proposed explanations for hypnosis have been criticized for being pseudoscientific, the phenomenon is generally accepted as real and scientific explanations exist.
Topics which notable scientific or skeptical groups consider to be pseudoscientific
The following list is of subjects that have aspects which were judged by one or more independent mainstream groups to be pseudoscientific. Indicative of this are assertions by mainstream, specialized scientific bodies or one or more national- or regional-level Academies of Science, or notable skeptical bodies such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP) to this effect. Some of these items are not considered pseudoscientific by these groups in and of themselves: only certain aspects, explanations, and/or applications of them have been thus classified. (See an item's description text for more information on this.)
Astronomy and Space sciences
- Apollo moon landing hoax accusations made by a small number of people claiming that parts of the Apollo program were hoaxed and subsequently covered up. While many of the accusations are best categorized under conspiracy theories, some do attempt to use faulty science to prove that the moon landing couldn't have happened, qualifying them as pseudoscience.[1][2]
- Astrology refers to any of several systems of understanding, interpreting and organizing knowledge about reality and human existence, based on the relative positions and movement of various real and construed celestial bodies.[3][4][5][6][7]
- Dogon people and Sirius B a series of claims that the Dogon tribe knew about the white dwarf companion of Sirius despite it being invisible to the naked eye.[1]
- Erich Von Däniken proposed that Earth was visited by ancient astronauts.[1] Such beings have been claimed to have initiated the rise of human civilization or provided significant technological assistance to various ancient civilizations.[8][9]
- The Face on Mars (in Cydonia Mensae) is a rock formation on Mars asserted to be evidence of intelligent, native life on the planet.[1] High resolution images taken recently show it to appear less face-like. It features prominently in the pseudoscientific speculations of Richard C. Hoagland.
- Immanuel Velikovsky proposed that ancient texts refer to the collision of astronomical bodies as in Worlds in Collision.[1]
- Lunar effect is the belief that the full moon influences human behavior.[1]
Earth and Earth sciences
- The Bermuda Triangle is a region of the Atlantic Ocean that lies between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and (in its most popular version) Florida. Frequent disappearances and ship and aircraft disasters in this area have led to the circulation of stories of unusual natural phenomona, paranormal encounters, and interactions with extraterrestrial.[8]
Paranormal and Ufology
Paranormal subjects[1][6][10][11] have been subject to critiques from a wide range of sources including the following claims of paranormal significance:
- Animal mutilations are cases of animals, primarily domestic livestock, with seemingly unexplainable wounds. These wounds have been said to be caused by natural predation, extra terrestrials, cults, or covert government organizations.[8]
- Channeling is the communication of information to or through a person allegedly from a spirit or other paranormal entity.[12]
- Crop circles are geometric designs of crushed or knocked-over crops created in a field. Aside from skilled farmers or pranksters working through the night, explanations for their formation include UFOs and anomalous, tornado-like air currents.[1] The study of crop circles is termed "cerealogy" by proponents.[13]
- Dowsing refers to practices said to enable one to detect hidden water, metals, gemstones or other objects. [14]
- Electronic voice phenomenon is the alleged communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices.[15][16][17][18][19]
- Extra-sensory perception is the paranormal ability (independent of the five main senses or deduction from previous experience) to acquire information by means such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychic abilities, and remote viewing.[20][21][22][23]
- Levitation, in this sense, is the act of rising up from the ground without any physical aids, usually by the power of thought.
- Materialization is the supposed creation or appearance of matter from unknown sources.
- Pseudoarchaeology is the investigation of the ancient past using alleged paranormal or otherwise means which have not been validated by mainstream science.[8]
- Psychic surgery is a type of medical fraud, popular in Brazil and the Philippines. Practitioners use sleight of hand to make it appear as though they are reaching into a patients body and extracting "tumours".[24][25][26][27][28]
- Psychokinesis is the paranormal ability of the mind to influence matter or energy at a distance.
- Séances are ritualized attempts to communicate with the dead.[8]
- Therapeutic touch is a form of vitalism where a practitioner, who may be also a nurse,[29] passes his or her hands over and around a patient to "realign" or "rebalance" a putative energy field.[14] A recent Cochrane Review concluded that "[t]here is no evidence that [Therapeutic Touch] promotes healing of acute wounds."[30] No biophysical basis for such an energy field has been found.[31][32]
- Tutankhamun's curse was allegedly placed on the discoverers of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, causing widespread deaths and other disastrous events.[8]
- Tunguska event is an anomalous meteor strike said to actually be the impact of a miniature black hole or a large body composed of antimatter, or Ball lightning.[8]
- Ufology is the study of unidentified flying objects (UFO) and frequently includes the belief that UFOs are evidence for extraterrestrial visitors.[1][5] [14][8][33]
- Close encounters are events where persons witness UFOs, or purportedly meet and/or communicate with alien beings.
Philosophy and psychology
- Graphology is a purported psychological test based on a belief that personality traits unconsciously and consistently influence handwriting morphology - that certain types of people exhibit certain quirks of the pen. Analysis of handwriting attributes provides no better than chance correspondence with personality, and neuroscientist Barry Beyerstein likened the assigned correlations to sympathetic magic.[34][35][8][36] Graphology is only superficially related to forensic document examination, which also examines handwriting.
- Phrenology is a defunct theory for determining personality traits by feeling bumps on the skull proposed by 18th century physiologist Franz Joseph Gall.[8] In an early recorded use of the term "pseudo-science", François Magendie referred to phrenology as "a pseudo-science of the present day".[37] The assumption that personality can be read from bumps in the skull has since been thoroughly discredited. However, Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in the brain is considered an important historical advance toward neuropsychology (see also localization of brain function, Brodmann's areas, neuro-imaging, modularity of mind or faculty psychology).[38]
- Primal therapy is sometimes presented as a science.[39] The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2001) states that: "The theoretical basis for the therapy is the supposition that prenatal experiences and birth trauma form people's primary impressions of life and that they subsequently influence the direction our lives take... Truth be known, primal therapy cannot be defended on scientifically established principles. This is not surprising considering its questionable theoretical rationale."[40]. Other sources have also questioned the scientific validity of primal therapy, some using the term "pseudoscience" (see Criticism of Primal Therapy).
- Subliminal perception is visual or auditory information that is discerned below the threshold of conscious awareness and has an effect on human behavior. It went into disrepute in the late 1970s [41] but there has been renewed research interest recently.[42][43][8]
Health and Medicine
- Anthroposophic medicine, or Anthroposophically extended medicine, is a school of complementary medicine[44] founded in the 1920s by Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with Dr. Ita Wegman based on the spiritual philosophy of anthroposophy. Adherents practice a highly individualized holistic and salutogenic approach to health, embracing a "Fourfold Path" of healing by considering the physical body, formative processes, consciousness, and biography (ego).[45] Medications are formulated to stimulate healing by matching "key dynamic forces" with symptoms,[46] and prepared for external, oral, or parenteral introduction in various dilutions ranging from whole to homeopathic.[47] Skeptic Robert Carroll likens to sympathetic magic the principle that curative plants may be identified by distortions or abnormalities in their morphology or physiology.[48] Carroll and others suggest that the system is out of touch with conventional medicine.[48][49] Practitioners give less significance to randomized controlled trials, emphasizing balancing these with individualized diagnosis and treatment.[50] Because promotion of self-healing is preferred, anthroposophical doctors and parents generally restrict or delay the use of vaccinations, antibiotics, and antipyretics; this restriction has been associated with a relative reduction in incidence of allergies in children being raised according to an anthroposophic lifestyle.[51][52][53] No thorough scientific analysis of the efficacy of anthroposophical medicine as a system independent of its philosophical underpinnings has been undertaken; no evidence-based conclusion of the overall efficacy of the system can be made at this time.[54]
- Applied kinesiology is a means of medical diagnosis which proponents believe can identify health problems or nutritional deficiencies through practitioner assessment of external physical qualities such as muscle response, posture, or motion analysis. A variety of therapies are prescribed based on tested weakness or smoothness of muscle action and a conjectured viscerosomatic association between particular muscles and organs. The sole use of Applied Kinesiology to diagnose or treat any allergy[55] or illness[56][57] is not scientifically supported, and the International College of Applied Kinesiology requires concurrent use of standard diagnostic techniques.[58] Applied kinesiologists are often chiropractors, but may also be naturopaths, physicians, dentists, nutritionists, physical therapists, massage therapists, and nurses.[56] Applied Kinesiology should not be confused with kinesiology, the scientific study of human movement.
- Attachment therapy is a set of potentially fatal[59] clinical interventions and parenting techniques aimed at controlling aggressive, disobedient, or unaffectionate children using "restraint and physical and psychological abuse to seek their desired results."[60] Probably the most common form is holding therapy in which the child is restrained by adults for the purpose of supposed cathartic release of suppressed rage and regression. Perhaps the most extreme, but much less common, is "rebirthing," in which the child is wrapped tightly in a blanket and then made to simulate emergence from a birth canal. This is done by encouraging the child to struggle and pushing and squeezing him/her to mimic contractions.[8] Despite its name it is not based on attachment theory or research.[61] In 2006 it was the subject of an almost entirely critical Taskforce Report commissioned by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC).[62]
- The Bates method for better eyesight is an educational method developed by ophthalmologist William Bates intended to improve vision "naturally" to the point at which it can allegedly eliminate the need for glasses by undoing a habitual strain to see.[63] In 1929 Bates was cited by the FTC for false or misleading advertising in connection with his book describing the method, Perfect Sight Without Glasses,[64] though the complaint was later dismissed.[65] Although some people claim to have improved their eyesight by following his principles, Bates' ideas about vision and accommodation have been rejected by mainstream ophthalmology and optometry.[66][67][68][69][70]
- Biorhythms – a hypothesis holding that human physiology and behavior are governed by physical, emotional, and intellectual cycles lasting 23, 28, and 33 days, respectively; not to be confused with Chronobiology, the scientific study of biological rhythms. The system posits that, for instance, errors in judgment are more probable on days when an individual's intellectual cycle, as determined by days since birth, is near a minimum. No biophysical mechanism of action has been discovered, and the predictive power of biorhythms charts is no better than chance.[71][72][73][8] For the scientific study of biological cycles such as circadian rhythms, see chronobiology.
- Brain Gym – a commercial training program that claims that any learning challenges can be overcome by finding the right movements, to subsequently create new pathways in the brain. They claim that the repetition of the 26 Brain Gym movements "activates the brain for optimal storage and retrieval of information",[74] and are designed to "integrate body and mind" in order to improve "concentration, memory, reading, writing, organizing, listening, physical coordination, and more."[75] Its theoretical foundation has been thoroughly discredited by the scientific community, who describe it as pseudoscience.[76][77][78][79] Peer reviewed scientific studies into Brain Gym have found no significant improvement in general academic skills. Its claimed results have been put down to the placebo effect and the benefits of breaks and exercise. Its founder, Paul Dennison, has admitted that many of Brain Gym's claims are not based good science, but on his "hunches".[80]
- Crystal healing is the belief that crystals have healing properties. Once common among pre-scientific and indigenous peoples, it has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity with the new age movement.[81][82][83]
- Chiropractic did not have serious research to test chiropractic theories until the 1970s, and was hampered by antiscientific and pseudoscientific ideas that sustained the profession in its long battle with organized medicine (examples, innate intelligence[84] and vertebral subluxation[85]).[86] By the mid 1990s there was a growing scholarly interest in chiropractic, which helped efforts to improve service quality and establish clinical guidelines that recommended manual therapies for acute low back pain.[86][87][88]
- Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS) is a reported sensitivity to electric and magnetic fields or electromagnetic radiation of various frequencies at exposure levels well below established safety standards. Symptoms are inconsistent, but can include headache, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and similar non-specific indications.[89] Provocation studies find that the discomfort of sufferers is unrelated to hidden sources of radiation,[90][91] and "no scientific basis currently exists for a connection between EHS and exposure to [electromagnetic fields]."[92]
- Faith healing is the act of curing disease by such means as prayer and laying on of hands. No material benefit in excess of that expected by placebo is observed.[8][93][94]
- Homeopathy is the belief in giving a patient with symptoms of an illness extremely dilute solutions of substances that produce those same symptoms in healthy people given larger doses. These preparations are often diluted beyond the point where any treatment molecule is likely to remain. Studies of homeopathic practice have been largely negative or inconclusive.[95][96][97][98] No scientific basis for homeopathic principles has been substantiated.[99][100][11][101][102][103][104]
- Hypnosis is a state of extreme relaxation and inner focus in which a person is unusually responsive to suggestions made by the hypnotist. The modern practice has its roots in the idea of animal magnetism, or mesmerism, originated by Franz Mesmer.[105] Though Mesmer's explanations were thoroughly discredited, hypnosis itself is today almost universally regarded as real.[43][8] It is clinically useful for e.g. pain management, but some claimed uses of hypnosis outside of hypnotherapy clearly fall within the area of pseudoscience. Such areas include the use of hypnotic regression beyond plausible limits, including past life regression.[106] Also see false memory syndrome.
- Iridology is a means of medical diagnosis which proponents believe can identify and diagnose health problems through close examination of the markings and patterns of the iris. Practitioners divide the iris into 80-90 zones, each of which is connected to a particular body region or organ. This connection has not been scientifically validated, and disorder detection is neither selective nor specific.[107][108][109] Because iris texture is a phenotypical feature which develops during gestation and remains unchanged after birth (which makes the iris useful for Biometrics), Iridology is all but impossible.
- Magnetic therapy is the practice of using magnetic fields to positively influence health. While there are legitimate medical uses for magnets and magnetic fields, the field strength used in magnetic therapy is too low to effect any biological change, and the methods used have no scientific validity.[8][110][111]
- Maharishi's Ayurveda. Traditional Ayurveda is a 5,000 year old alternative medical practice with roots in ancient India based on a mind-body set of beliefs.[112][113] Imbalance or stress in an individual’s consciousness is believed to be the reason of diseases.[112] Patients are classified by body types (three doshas, which are considered to control mind-body harmony, determine an individual’s "body type"); and treatment is aimed at restoring balance to the mind-body system.[112][113] It has long been the main traditional system of health care in India,[113] and it has become institutionalized in India's colleges and schools.[114] Although it superficially adheres to modern institutions, the institutional practitioners are haunted by Ayurvedic vaidyas, who were trained outside the traditional medicine school.[114] As with other traditional knowledge, it was not recorded anywhere and most of it was lost, and the current practice is mostly based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the 1980's,[115] who mixed it with Transcendental Meditation. The most notable advocate of Ayurveda on America is Deepak Chopra, who claims that Maharishi's Ayurveda is based on quantum physics.[115]
- Radionics is a means of medical diagnosis and therapy which proponents believe can diagnose and remedy health problems using various frequencies in a putative energy field coupled to the practitioner's electronic device. The first such "black box" devices were designed and promoted by Albert Abrams, and were definitively proven useless by an independent investigation commissioned by Scientific American in 1924.[116] The internal circuitry of radionics devices is often obfuscated and irrelevant, leading proponents to conjecture dowsing and ESP as operating principles.[117][118] Similar devices continue to be marketed under various names, though none is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration; there is no scientific evidence for the efficacy or underlying premise of radionics devices.[119][120] The radionics of Albert Abrams and his intellectual descendants should not be confused with similarly named reputable and legitimate companies, products, or medical treatments such as radiotherapy or radiofrequency ablation.
- Scientific racism is the claim that scientific evidence shows the inferiority or superiority of certain races.[121][122]
- Traditional Chinese Medicine. Practices such as acupuncture, qigong and ideas such as chi are held as "quackery" and pseudoscientific by skeptic groups like CSICOP[6][7].
Religious and spiritual beliefs
Spiritual and religious practices and beliefs are normally not classified as pseudoscience.[123] The following have been related pseudoscience in some way, however:
- Creation science is the belief that the origin of everything in the universe is the result of a first cause, brought about by a creator deity, and that this thesis is supported by geological, biological, and other scientific evidence.[1][4][5][124]
- Biblical scientific foreknowledge asserts that the Bible makes accurate statements about the world that science verifies thousands of years later.
- Creation biology is the subset of creation science that tries to explain biology without evolution.
- Creationist cosmologies are ones which, among other things, allow for a universe that is only thousands of years old.
- Flood geology is the creationist form of geology that advocates most of the geologic features on Earth are explainable by a global flood.
- Modern geocentrism, citing uniform gamma-ray bursts distribution, and other arguments of this type, as evidence that we are at the center of the universe.
- Intelligent design is a version of creation science[125] stated in secular terms, viz. that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."[126][4][124]
- Irreducible complexity is the claim that some systems are so complex that they cannot have evolved from simpler systems. It is used by proponents of intelligent design to argue that evolution by natural selection alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism (an "Intelligent Designer") is required to explain the origins of life.
- Specified complexity is the claim that when something is simultaneously complex and specified, one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (i.e., that it was designed) rather than being the result of natural processes.
- Dianetics is L. Ron Hubbard's pseudoscience that purports to treat a hypothetical reactive mind by means of an E-meter, a device which Hubbard was later legally forced to admit "does nothing".[127][128][129][130][131]
- Quantum mysticism builds on a superficial similarity between certain New Age concepts and such seemingly counter-intuitive quantum mechanical concepts as the indeterminacy principle, entanglement, and wave–particle duality, while generally ignoring the limitations imposed by quantum decoherence.[8][132][133][134][135] One of the most abused ideas is Bell's theorem, which proves the nonexistence of local hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Despite this, Bell himself resisted mystical interpretations of the theory.[136]
- The Shroud of Turin is a length of linen cloth believed by some members of the Christian community to have been Jesus' death shroud.[8] Radiocarbon dating of the original material has shown that it dates from the 13th or 14th century,[137] though some claim that the material tested was not representative of the whole shroud.[138][139] Analyses of the paint and the herringbone twill weave of the cloth similarly point to a medieval origin.[140]
Other
- Hongcheng Magic Liquid is a pseudoscience incident in China where an inventor claimed that could turn water into a usable fuel by just adding a few drops of his "secret formula" liquid. The government and China and the Chinese Communist Party were alarmed by pseudoscience developments like this one and issued a joint proclamation condemning the recent decline of public education in science.[141]
- Laundry balls are spherical or toroidal objects marketed as soap substitutes for washing machines.[8]
- Perpetual motion is a class of proposed machines that violate one of the Laws of Thermodynamics. Perpetual motion has been recognized as extrascientific since the late 18th century, but proposals and patents for such devices continue to be made to the present day.[1][6] [14]
- Free energy is a particular class of perpetual motion which purports to create energy (violating the first law of thermodynamics) or extract useful work from equilibrium systems (violating the second law of thermodynamics). Of particular note are proposals involving the extraction of zero point energy, a real energy found in quantum mechanics that cannot be used to do work.[14]
- Water-fuelled cars are an instance of perpetual motion machines.[142] Such devices are claimed to use water as fuel or produce fuel from water onboard with no other energy input.
- Stock market prediction can involve prediction of stock prices using technical analysis techniques based purely on charts of past price behavior or patterns in various metrics.[8][143] These techniques are dubiously justified, and violate the efficient market hypothesis.[144]
Parody pseudoscience
The following are notable parodies of other pseudosciences and pseudoscientific concepts, or scientific jokes posing as serious theories.
- Intelligent falling is a parody of intelligent design which attacks gravitation in the same way intelligent design attacks origin theories.[145]
- Dihydrogen monoxide hoax dhmo.org is a web site purporting to be set up by concerned citizens to examine "the controversy surrounding dihydrogen monoxide" including evidence of its environmental, health, and other problems. Dihydrogen Monoxide is H2O (also known as water).[146]
Idiosyncratic ideas
The following concepts have only a very small number of proponents, yet have become notable.
- Autodynamics is an alternative to special relativity proposed by Ricardo Carezani based on revised Lorentz transformations. In addition to failing to make accurate predictions at relativistic velocities, the proposed transformations do not correspond to classical velocity addition. Promoters also propose a number of revisions to the "particle zoo" of subatomic physics, including the nonexistence of neutrinos.[147][148]
- Bogdanov Affair was an academic dispute regarding the legitimacy of a series of theoretical physics papers written by French twin brothers Igor and Grichka Bogdanov.[149]
- Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe is a proposed theory of everything made by Christopher Michael Langan, an autodidact.
- Electrogravitics is based upon the original work of Nikola Tesla and advanced by Thomas Townsend Brown that attempts to connect gravity and electromagnetism.[150]
- Flat Earth Hypothesis proposes that the earth is a flat, disc shaped planet with enough upward momentum to produce gravity. See also Flat Earth Society.
- Hutchison effect is a proposed explanation for purported levitation caused by devices made by John Hutchison.
- Lawsonomy was a proposed philosophy and system of claims about physics made by baseball player Alfred William Lawson.[151]
- Scalar field theories are a set of proposals that modify electromagnetic theory in various non-standard ways.
- Kauko Armas Nieminen is a self-published Finnish autodidact proposing various alternative physical ideas.
- Nucleonic energy is a technological concept developed by Canadian autodidact and inventor Mel Winfield.[152]
- Ousiograph is a device created by schizophrenic Steven Green to detect the messages that are sent to one's brain.[153]
- Penta Water is a claimed acoustically-induced structural reorganization of liquid water into long-lived small clusters of five molecules each. Neither these clusters nor their asserted benefits to humans have been shown to exist.[154][155]
- Polywater is a hypothetical polymerized form of water proposed in the 1960s with a higher boiling point, lower freezing point, and much higher viscosity than ordinary water. It was later found not to exist, with the anomalous measurements being explained by biological contamination.[156]
- Theory of radial momentum is a proposal by Ed Seykota, a commodities trader, which claims to clarify "problems" with the application of the Bernoulli principle.
- Time Cube is a proposed theory of everything which holds that time is cubic. Its creator, Gene Ray, finds those who are ignorant of or in disagreement with his theory to be "stupid and evil." According to his own web site, he is a diagnosed schizophrenic.[157]
- Welteislehre is a notion by the Austrian Hans Hörbiger that ice was the basic substance of all cosmic processes.[158]
Previously disputed unusual natural phenomena
Certain unusual natural phenomena have previously been considered pseudoscientific but are no longer doubted by modern science:
- Meteorites are objects composed of stone and/or metal that fall from space onto the surface of the Earth. This was contested by skeptical scientists in the 18th century, especially those of the French Academy. Ernst Chladni demonstrated their celestial origin in 1794, and a substantial fall of meteorites in France in 1803 dispersed the skepticism.[159]
- Ball lightning is a slow-moving, luminous sphere which is up to 30cm in diameter, explanations for which have ranged from combusted hydrocarbon gas to "Will o' the wisp" creatures.[8] The phenomenon is now better understood[160] and contemporary scientific consensus clearly accepts the existence of a phenomenon which mimics some reports of ball lightning, but is on a much smaller scale.[161][162]
See also
- Cargo cult science
- Crank (referencing a disagreeable person)
- Falsification
- Fringe science
- Occam's razor
- Paradigm
- Paradigm shift
- ’Pataphysics
- Pathological science
- Philosophy of science
- Protoscience
- Pseudophilosophy
- Pseudoscience
- Pseudoskepticism
- Science
- Scientific consensus (describes the majority views of scientists)
- Superseded scientific theories
Further reading
- Abell, George O. and Barry Singer, Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural, Charles Scribner's, 1981, ISBN 0-684-17820-6
- Collins, Paul S. (2002) Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't Change the World. Picador. ISBN 0-312-30033-6
- Gardner, Martin, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
- Gardner, Martin, Science, Good, Bad, and Bogus
- Randi, James, Flim-Flam: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and other Delusions, Prometheus, 1982, ISBN 0-87975-198-3
- Sagan, Carl, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark. Ballantine Books, March 1997 ISBN 0-345-40946-9, 480 pgs. 1996 hardback edition: Random House, ISBN 0-394-53512-X, xv+457 pages plus addenda insert (some printings).
- Schick, Theodore and Lewis Vaughn. (1998) How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age. Mayfield. ISBN 0-7674-0013-5
- Shermer, Michael. (2002) Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. Owl Books. ISBN 0-8050-7089-3
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k article on the website of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.[1]
- ^ Knier, Gil (2001-03-30). "The Moon Landing Hoax". NASA. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) "Did we actually send humans to the Moon in the 1960's? Of course we did!" - ^ "The Universe At Your Fingertips Activity: Activities With Astrology". Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Retrieved 2007-12-03. "These activities help students to understand the difference between science and pseudoscience by investigating some of astrology's claims."
- ^ a b c statement from the California Academy of Sciences.[2]
- ^ a b c statement from the Iowa Academy of Science.[3]
- ^ a b c statement from the Russian Academy of Sciences.[4]
- ^ National Science Board (2002). Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. pp. ch. 7. ISBN 978-0160665790.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... More than 25 percent of the public believes in astrology, that is, that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives." - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u entry in The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience.
- ^ Trefil, James (2007-03). "Who Were the Ancient Engineers of Egypt?". Skeptical Briefs. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) "the pyramids, as impressive as they are, give no evidence at all for the presence of advanced technology at work in ancient Egypt." - ^ Indicators 2000 - Chapter 8: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding - Belief in the Paranormal or Pseudoscience
- ^ a b Beyerstein, BL (1997). "Distinguishing Science from Pseudoscience" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-07-14.
- ^ Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding - Science Fiction and Pseudoscience
- ^ "They call it cerealogy", CNN.com
- ^ a b c d e Scientific American
- ^ http://parapsych.org/glossary_e_k.html#e Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved January 24, 2006
- ^ Alcock, James E. "Electronic Voice Phenomena:Voices of the Dead?". Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2007-03-08.
{{cite web}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ Carroll, Robert Todd, The Skeptic's Dictionary 2003, Wiley Publishing Company, ISBN 0471272426
- ^ Shermer, Michael (2005). "Turn Me On, Dead Man". Scientific American. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ Terrence Hines, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 1988. ISBN 0-87975-419-2.Thagard (1978) op cit 223 ff
- ^ Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved December 24, 2006
- ^ "extrasensory perception" Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
- ^ Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding - Science Fiction and Pseudoscience
- ^ National Science Board (2002). Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. pp. ch. 7. ISBN 978-0160665790.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... At least half of the public believes in the existence of extrasensory perception (ESP)." - ^ Randi, James (1989). The Faith Healers. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-535-0.
- ^ David Vernon in Skeptical - a Handbook of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, ed Donald Laycock, David Vernon, Colin Groves, Simon Brown, Imagecraft, Canberra, 1989, ISBN 0731657942, p47
- ^ ""Psychic surgery" -- 40 (3): 184 -- CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians". Retrieved 2007-07-28.
- ^ Carroll, Robert Todd. "Psychic Surgery". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
- ^ "Psychic surgeon charged". The Filipino Reporter. June 17–23, 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: date format (link) - ^ Wallace, Sampson (1998-03-24). ""Therapeutic Touch" Fails a Rare Scientific Test". CSICOP News. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) "Despite this lack of evidence, TT is now supported by major nursing organizations such as the National League of Nurses and the American Nurses Association." - ^ O'Mathuna, DP (2003/2006). "Therapeutic touch for healing acute wounds". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2003 (4): CD002766. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD002766. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
{{cite journal}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Courcey, Kevin. "Further Notes on Therapeutic Touch". Quackwatch. Retrieved 2007-12-05. "What's missing from all of this, of course, is any statement by Krieger and her disciples about how the existence of their energy field can be demonstrated by scientifically accepted methods."
- ^ "Energy Medicine: An Overview". National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-12-05. "neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means."
- ^ National Science Board (2002). Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. pp. ch. 7. ISBN 978-0160665790.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... A sizable minority of the public believes in UFOs and that aliens have landed on Earth." - ^ "Barry Beyerstein Q&A". Ask the Scientists. Scientific American Frontiers. Retrieved 2008-02-22. "they simply interpret the way we form these various features on the page in much the same way ancient oracles interpreted the entrails of oxen or smoke in the air. I.e., it's a kind of magical divination or fortune telling where 'like begets like.'"
- ^ "The use of graphology as a tool for employee hiring and evaluation". British Columbia Civil Liberties Union. 1988. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "On the other hand, in properly controlled, blind studies, where the handwriting samples contain no content that could provide non-graphological information upon which to base a prediction (e.g., a piece copied from a magazine), graphologists do no better than chance at predicting the personality traits" - ^ Thomas, John A. (2002). "Graphology Fact Sheet". North Texas Skeptics. Retrieved 2008-02-22. "In summary, then, it seems that graphology as currently practiced is a typical pseudoscience and has no place in character assessment or employment practice. There is no good scientific evidence to justify its use, and the graphologists do not seem about to come up with any."
- ^ Magendie, F (1843) An Elementary Treatise on Human Physiology. 5th Ed. Tr. John Revere. New York: Harper, note: "pseudo-science" (p.150).
- ^ Fodor, JA. (1983) The Modularity of Mind. MIT Press. p.14, 23, 131
- ^ Primal therapy homepage
- ^ Moore, Timothy (2001). Primal Therapy. Gale Group.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Business (Subliminal Advertising)". The Urban Legends Reference Pages. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
- ^ For example, processing of happy and sad faces affecting the desirability of subsequent stimulus (Westen, 2006 p.184-185).
- ^ a b Westen et al. 2006 "Psychology: Austraian and New Zealand edition" John Wiley.
- ^ von Rohr et al., [http://www.smw.ch/docs/pdf/2000_34/2000-34-245.PDF "Experiences in the realisation of a research project on anthroposophical medicine in patients with advanced cancer"], Schweiz Med Wochenschr 2000;130:1173–84
- ^ Klotter, Jule (May 2006). "Anthroposophical Medicine". Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, 24(1):274.
- ^ "Miscellaneous Holistic Remedies". Holistic Online. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
- ^ "The Position of Anthroposophic Medicine". Internationale Vereinigung Anthroposophischer Ärztegesellschaften (International Federation of Anthroposophic Medical Associations). Retrieved 2008-02-09. "Some medicines are similar to herbal medicinal products, some are prepared according to the guidelines of homeopathic pharmacopoeias."
- ^ a b Carroll, Robert. "anthroposophic medicine". Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
- ^ Hansson, Sven Ove (1991). "Is Anthroposophy Science?". Conceptus. XXV (64): 37–49.
{{cite journal}}
:|access-date=
requires|url=
(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Steiner also taught many other branches of knowledge, such as agriculture, medicine and education. His source of knowledge was always the same: His own clairvoyant visions." - ^ Helmut Kiene, Complementary Methodology in Clinical Research - Cognition-based Medicine, Springer Publishers: Heidelberg, New York. 2001. ISBN 3-540-41022-8
- ^ Alm, J. S., Swartz, J., Lilja, G., Scheynius, A., and Pershagen, G. (1999). Atopy in children of families with an anthroposophic lifestyle. Lancet, 353(9163):1485-8. PMID 10232315 Reprint copy
- ^ Flöistrup, Helen (2006-01). "Allergic disease and sensitization in Steiner school children". The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 117 (1): 59–66. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2005.09.039. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
{{cite journal}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Klotter, Jule. "Anthroposophic lifestyle & allergies in children.(Shorts)." Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients 274 (May 2006): 24(2).
- ^ Ernst, Edzard, "Anthroposophical Medicine: A systematic review of randomised clinical trials." Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, ISSN 0043-5325, 2004, vol. 116, no4, pp. 128-130
- ^ "Report of the Special Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medical Practitioners, In Opposition to the Licensure of Naturopaths" (PDF). Massachusetts Medical Society. Retrieved 2008-01-27. "Many of the means by which naturopaths diagnose these toxins and allergies are outright quackery: electrodiagnostic devices (banned by the FDA as worthless), hair analysis, applied kinesiology, iridology, and more."
- ^ a b "Applied Kinesiology". American Cancer Society. 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2008-01-27. "Available scientific evidence does not support the claim that applied kinesiology can diagnose or treat cancer or other illness."
- ^ "Applied Kinesiology". Natural Standard. 2005-07-01. Retrieved 2008-01-27. "applied kinesiology has not been shown to be effective for the diagnosis or treatment of any disease."
- ^ "Applied Kinesiology Status Statement". International College of Applied Kinesiology. 1992-06-16. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
- ^ Randi, James (2004-07-16 "This is a total quack procedure that has actually killed children."). "Swift: Online Newsletter of the JREF". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Maloney, Shannon-Bridget. "Be Wary of Attachment Therapy". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
- ^ Preface to "Enhancing Early Attachments. Theory, Research, Intervention and Policy." Duke series in child development and public policy. Eds. Lisa J. Berlin, Yair Ziv, Lisa Amaya-Jackson and Mark T. Greenberg Guilford Press ISBN 1-59385-470-6 p. xvii
- ^ Chaffin M, Hanson R, Saunders BE; et al. (2006). "Report of the APSAC task force on attachment therapy, reactive attachment disorder, and attachment problems". Child Maltreat. 11 (1): 76–89. doi:10.1177/1077559505283699. PMID 16382093.
{{cite journal}}
: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=
(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Quackenbush, Thomas R. (2000). Better Eyesight The complete magazines of William H. Bates. North Atlantic Books. pp. page 643. ISBN 1-55643-351-4.
{{cite book}}
:|pages=
has extra text (help) - ^ Worrall, Russell S. (2007-09-12 "The claims Bates made in advertising his book were so dubious that in 1929 the Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint against him for advertising "falsely or misleadingly.""). "Eye-Related Quackery". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Pollack P. (1956). "Chapter 3: Fallacies of the Bates System". The Truth about Eye Exercises. Philadelphia: Chilton Co.
{{cite book}}
: External link in
(help); Unknown parameter|chapterurl=
|chapterurl=
ignored (|chapter-url=
suggested) (help) - ^ Leanna Skarnulis (February 5, 2007). "Natural Vision Correction: Does It Work?". WebMD. "No evidence was found that visual training had any effect on the progression of nearsightedness, or that it improved visual function for patients with farsightedness or astigmatism, or that it improved vision lost to diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, or diabetic retinopathy."
- ^ Gardner, Martin (1957). "Chapter 19: Throw Away Your Glasses". Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Reprint: Courier Dover. pp. 230–241. ISBN 0-486-20394-8. "Actually, Bates' theory of accommodation (so necessary to explain the value of his exercises) is so patently absurd that even most of his present-day followers have discarded it."
- ^ Robyn E. Bradley (September 23, 2003). "ADVOCATES SEE ONLY BENEFITS FROM EYE EXERCISES" (PDF). The Boston Globe (MA).
- ^ Marg, E. (1952). ""Flashes" of clear vision and negative accommodation with reference to the Bates Method of visual training" (PDF). Am J Opt Arch Am Ac Opt. 29 (4): 167–84.
- ^ Randi, James (2006-11-11 "This is pure old quackery, it’s wishful thinking, and it’s profitable."). "Swift: the weekly newsletter of the JREF". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ "Biological Rhythms: Implications for the Worker". OTA-BA-463 Box 2-A pg. 30. Office of Technology Assessment. 1991-09. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) "No evidence exists to support the concept of biorhythms; in fact, scientific data refute their existence." - ^ Carroll, Robert Todd. "Biorhythms". Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2008-02-21. "The theory of biorhythms is a pseudoscientific theory that claims our daily lives are significantly affected by rhythmic cycles overlooked by scientists who study biological rhythms."
- ^ Hines, Terence (1998). "Comprehensive Review of Biorhythm Theory" (pdf (summary)). Psychological Reports. 83: 19–64. doi:10.2466/PR0.83.5.19-64. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "The conclusion is that biorhythm theory is not valid." - ^ "Brain Gym - FAQ". The Official Brain Gym Web Site. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
BRAIN GYM works by facilitating optimal achievement of mental potential through specific movement experiences. All acts of speech, hearing, vision, and coordination are learned through a complex repertoire of movements. BRAIN GYM promotes efficient communication among the many nerve cells and functional centers located throughout the brain and sensory motor system.
- ^ About Brain Gym
- ^ "Neuroscience and Education: Issues and Opportunities" (PDF). the ESRC's Teaching and Learning Research Programme website. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
The pseudo-scientific terms that are used to explain how this works, let alone the concepts they express, are unrecognisable within the domain of neuroscience.
- ^ Goswami, Usha (2006). "Neuroscience and education: from research to practice?" (fee required). Nature. 7: 406–413. doi:10.1038/nrn1907. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
Cognitive neuroscience is making rapid strides in areas highly relevant to education. However, there is a gulf between current science and direct classroom applications. Most scientists would argue that filling the gulf is premature. Nevertheless, at present, teachers are at the receiving end of numerous 'brain-based learning' packages. Some of these contain alarming amounts of misinformation, yet such packages are being used in many schools.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ "Sense About Science - Brain Gym". Sense About Science. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
These exercises are being taught with pseudoscientific explanations that undermine science teaching and mislead children about how their bodies work. ... There have been a few peer reviewed scientific studies into the methods of Brain Gym, but none of them found a significant improvement in general academic skills.
- ^
Hyatt, Keith J. (2007). "Brain Gym - Building Stronger Brains or Wishful Thinking?" (fee required). Remedial and Special Education. 28 (2). SAGE Publications: 117–124. doi:10.1177/07419325070280020201. ISSN 0741-9325. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
a review of the theoretical foundations of Brain Gym and the associated peer-reviewed research studies failed to support the contentions of the promoters of Brain Gym®. Educators are encouraged to become informed consumers of research and to avoid implementing programming for which there is neither a credible theoretical nor a sound research basis.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^
"News in brief". The Times. 2008-04-05. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
Paul Dennison, a Californian educator who created the programme, admitted that many claims in his teacher's guide were based on his 'hunches' and were not proper science.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ Campion, Edward (1993). "Why Unconventional Medicine". New England Journal of Medicine. 328: 282. doi:10.1056/NEJM199301283280413. PMID 8418412.
- ^ Carroll, Robert Todd. "crystal power". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
- ^ Stephen S. Carey. A Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 0-534-58450-0.
- ^ Chiropractic: Flagship of the Alternative Medicine Fleet, Part One and Part Two - by Steven Novella MD, and President of the New England Skeptical Society
- Innate intelligence Joseph C. Keating, Jr (2002). "The Meanings of Innate" (PDF). J Can Chiropr Assoc. 46 (1): 10.
- ^ Vertebral subluxation Keating JC Jr, Charlton KH, Grod JP, Perle SM, Sikorski D, Winterstein JF (2005). "Subluxation: dogma or science?". Chiropr Osteopat. 13: 17. doi:10.1186/1746-1340-13-17. PMID 16092955.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ a b Keating JC Jr, Cleveland CS III, Menke M (2005). "Chiropractic history: a primer" (PDF). Association for the History of Chiropractic. Retrieved 2008-06-16.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Keating JC Jr (1997). "Chiropractic: science and antiscience and pseudoscience side by side". Skept Inq. 21 (4): 37–43. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
- ^ Campbell JB, Busse JW, Injeyan HS (2000). "Chiropractors and vaccination: A historical perspective". Pediatrics. 105 (4): E43. PMID 10742364.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Roosli, Martin (2004). "Symptoms of ill health ascribed to electromagnetic field exposure--a questionnaire survey". Int J Hyg Environ Health. 207 (2): 141–50. doi:10.1078/1438-4639-00269.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) - ^ Rubin, G James (2005). "Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: A Systematic Review of Provocation Studies". Psychosomatic Medicine. 67: 224–232. doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000155664.13300.64. PMID 15784787.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Goldacre, Ben. "Electrosensitives: the new cash cow of the woo industry". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
- ^ "Electromagnetic fields and public health". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
- ^ National Science Board (2002). Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. pp. ch. 7. ISBN 978-0160665790.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Belief in pseudoscience is relatively widespread... Polls also show that one quarter to more than half of the public believes in ... faith healing." - ^ Frazier, Kendrick (2005-01). "In the Land of Galileo, Fifth World Skeptics Congress Solves Mysteries, Champions Scientific Outlook". Skeptical Inquirer. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) "The majority of rigorous trials show no effect beyond placebo." (Edzard Ernst) - ^ Goldacre, Ben (2007-11-17). "Benefits and Risks of Homoeopathy". The Lancet. 370: 1672. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61706-1.
{{cite journal}}
:|access-date=
requires|url=
(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Five large meta-analyses of homoeopathy trials have been done. All have had the same result: after excluding methodologically inadequate trials and accounting for publication bias, homoeopathy produced no statistically significant benefit over placebo." - ^ "Homoeopathy's benefit questioned". BBC News. 2005-08-25. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Professor Egger said: "We acknowledge to prove a negative is impossible. "But good large studies of homeopathy do not show a difference between the placebo and the homoeopathic remedy, whereas in the case of conventional medicines you still see an effect."" - ^ "Homeopathy: systematic review of systematic reviews". Bandolier. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "None of these systematic reviews provided any convincing evidence that homeopathy was effective for any condition. The lesson was often that the best designed trials had the most negative result" - ^ "Questions and Answers About Homeopathy". National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2003-04. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) "In sum, systematic reviews have not found homeopathy to be a definitively proven treatment for any medical condition." - ^ CSICOP, cited in National Science Board Subcommittee on Science & Engineering Indicators (2000). "Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding Science Fiction and Pseudoscience". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
- ^ "NCAHF Position Paper on Homeopathy". National Council Against Health Fraud. 1994. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
- ^ Tyler, Chris (2006-09). "Sense About Homeopathy" (PDF). Sense About Science. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) "The scientific evidence shows that homeopathy acts only as a placebo and there is no scientific explanation of how it could work any other way." - ^ "Questions and Answers About Homeopathy". National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2003-04. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) "a number of its key concepts do not follow the laws of science (particularly chemistry and physics)." - ^ "What is Homeopathy". American Cancer Society. 2000-01-05. Retrieved 2008-01-30. "Most scientists say homeopathic remedies are basically water and can act only as placebos."
- ^ "In a statement, the Royal College of Pathologists said they were "deeply alarmed" that the regulation of medicine had "moved away from science and clear information for the public"."Scientists attack homeopathy move, BBC News, 25 October 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
- ^ "Hypnosis". American Cancer Society. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
- ^ Lynn, Steven Jay (2003), "The remembrance of things past: problematic memory recovery techniques in psychotherapy", in Lilienfeld, Scott O. (ed.), Science and Pseudoscience in Psychotherapy, New York: Guilford Press, pp. 219–220, ISBN 1572308281
{{citation}}
:|access-date=
requires|url=
(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|coeditors=
ignored (help) "hypnotically induced past life experiences are rule-governed, goal-directed fantasies that are context generated and sensitive to the demands of the hypnotic regression situation." - ^ "Iridology". Natural Standard. 2005-07-07. Retrieved 2008-02-01. "Research suggests that iridology is not an effective method to diagnose or help treat any specific medical condition."
- ^ Ernst E. Iridology: not useful and potentially harmful. Arch. Ophthalmol. 2000 Jan;118(1):120-1. PMID 10636425
- ^ "H-175.998 Evaluation of Iridology". American Medical Association. Retrieved 2008-02-01. "Our AMA believes that iridology, the study of the iris of the human eye, has not yet been established as having any merit as a diagnostic technique."
- ^ Park, Robert L. (2000). Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 58–63. ISBN 0-19-513515-6 "Not only are magnetic fields of no value in healing, you might characterize these as "homeopathic" magnetic fields.".
{{cite book}}
: Check|isbn=
value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ National Science Board (2002). Science and Engineering Indicators – 2002. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. pp. ch. 7. ISBN 978-0160665790.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Among all who had heard of [magnet therapy], 14 percent said it was very scientific and another 54 percent said it was sort of scientific. Only 25 percent of those surveyed answered correctly, that is, that it is not at all scientific." - ^ a b c "Report 12 of the Council on Scientific Affairs (A-97)". American Medical Association. 1997.
- ^ a b c "Ayurvedic medicine". Quackwatch. Retrieved 2008-08-16.
- ^ a b Lesley A. Sharp (2003). "Review of Fluent bodies: Ayourvedic Remedies for Postcolonial Imbalance". Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 17 (4): 511–512. doi:10.1525/maq.2003.17.4.512. Retrieved 2008-08-16.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|month=
ignored (help) (page 512) - ^ a b Robert Todd Carroll (2003). John Wiley and Sons (ed.). The Skeptic's Dictionary. pp. 45-4?. ISBN 0471272426. (Pseudoscience and Ayurvedic medicine entries on the online version)
- ^ Pilkington, Mark (2004-04-15). "A vibe for radionics". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Scientific American concluded: 'At best, [ERA] is all an illusion. At worst, it is a colossal fraud.'" - ^ "10 lesser-known alternative therapies". British Broadcasting Corporation. 2006-05-23. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
{{cite news}}
:|first=
missing|last=
(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) " Radionics is a technique of healing using extrasensory perception (ESP) and an instrument." - ^ "What is Radionics". The Radionic Association. Retrieved 2008-02-07. "This subtle field cannot be accessed using our conventional senses. Radionic practitioners use a specialised dowsing technique to both identify the sources of weakness in the field and to select specific treatments to overcome them. "
- ^ "Electromagnetic Therapy". American Cancer Society. Retrieved 2008-02-06. "There is no relationship between the conventional medical uses of electromagnetic energy and the alternative devices or methods that use externally applied electrical forces. Available scientific evidence does not support claims that these alternative electrical devices are effective in diagnosing or treating cancer or any other disease."
- ^ Helwig, David (2004-12), "Radionics", in Longe, Jacqueline L. (ed.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, Gale Cengage, ISBN 978-0787674243, retrieved 2008-02-07
{{citation}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Cite has empty unknown parameters:|coeditors=
and|coauthors=
(help) - ^ Gould, Stephen Jay (1981). The Mismeasure of Man. New York, NY: W W Norton and Co. pp. 28–29. ISBN 0-393-01489-4.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within." - ^ Kurtz, Paul (2004-09). "Can the Sciences Help Us to Make Wise Ethical Judgments?". Skeptical Inquirer Magazine. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) "There have been abundant illustrations of pseudoscientific theories-monocausal theories of human behavior that were hailed as "scientific"-that have been applied with disastrous results. Examples: ... Many racists today point to IQ to justify a menial role for blacks in society and their opposition to affirmative action." - ^ Carl Sagan, "Does Truth Matter? Science, Pseudoscience, and Civilization", Skeptical Inquirer, 1996
- ^ a b statement from the International Council for Science.[5]
- ^ Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Conclusion "In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."
- ^ Discovery Institute, Center for Science and Culture. Questions about Intelligent Design: What is the theory of intelligent design? "The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." Questions About Intelligent Design
- ^ Christopher Riche Evans (1974). Cults of Unreason. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-13324-7. Chapter 6.
- ^ Russell Miller. Bare-faced messiah: The true story of L. Ron Hubbard. Key Porter.
- ^ Dr. Peter Banys in the SF Chronicle
- ^ defined as pseudoscience at Skeptic's Dictionary
- ^ "Dianetics, that unholy alliance of psychoanalysis and cybernetics, rates a special chapter." - Some Comments on Popular-Science Books, John Pfeiffer, Science (New Series), Vol. 117, No. 3042 (Apr., 1953), pp. 399-403, referencing Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner
- ^ Park, Robert L. (2000). Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 39. ISBN 0-19-513515-6.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "[People] long to be told that modern science validates the teachings of some ancient scripture or New Age guru. The purveyors of pseudoscience have been quick to exploit their ambivalence." - ^ Stenger, Victor J. (1997-01). "Quantum Quackery". Skeptical Inquirer. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Capra's book was an inspiration for the New Age, and "quantum" became a buzzword used to buttress the trendy, pseudoscientific spirituality that characterizes this movement." - ^ Gell-Mann, Murray (1995). The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and Complex. Macmillan. p. 168. ISBN 0805072535.
{{cite book}}
: Check|authorlink=
value (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Then the conclusion has been drawn that quantum mechanics permits faster-than-light communication, and even tha claimed "paranormal" phenomena like precognition are thereby made respectable! How can this have happened?" - ^ Kuttner, Fred (2006-11). "Teaching physics mysteries versus pseudoscience". Physics Today. American Institute of Physics. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
{{cite news}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) "We should not underestimate how persuasively physics can be invoked to buttress mystical notions. We physicists bear some responsibility for the way our discipline is exploited." - ^ Bell, J. S. (1988). Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics. Cambridge University Press. p. 170. ISBN 0521523389.
{{cite book}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "So I think it is not right to tell the public that a central role for conscious mind is integrated into modern atomic physics. Or that 'information' is the real stuff of physical theory. It seems to me irresponsible to suggest that technical features of contemporary theory were anticipated by the saints of ancient religions ... by introspection." - ^ Damon, P. E. (1989-02). "Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin". Nature. 337 (6208): 611–615. doi:10.1038/337611a0. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
{{cite journal}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Rogers, Raymond N.: "Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the shroud of turin." Thermochimica Acta, Volume 425, Issue 1–2 (January 20 2005), pages 189–194
- ^ Ball, Philip. "To Know a Veil". Nature online, 28 January 2005.
- ^ Nickell, Joe "the scientific approach allows the preponderance of evidence to lead to a conclusion: the shroud is the work of a medieval artisan". "PBS "Secrets of the Dead" Buries the Truth About Turin Shroud". Retrieved 2007-11-18.
- ^ Does truth matter?, by Carl Sagan "[text of proclamation] activities of superstition and ignorance have been growing, and antiscience and pseudoscience cases have become frequent. Therefore, effective measures must be applied as soon as possible to strengthen public education in science." (pages 8-9)
- ^ Ball, Philip (September 14, 2007). "Burning water and other myths". Nature News. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Lo, A.W. (2000). "Foundations of Technical Analysis: Computational Algorithms, Statistical Inference, and Empirical Implementation". The Journal of Finance. 55 (4): 1705–1765. doi:10.1111/0022-1082.00265.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (help) - ^ Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street
- ^ Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory, The Onion
- ^
Gnad, Megan (2007-09-14). "MP tries to ban water". New Zealand Herald.
{{cite web}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ "No Neutrinos". Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
- ^ Philipkoski, Kristen (1999-07-13). "Shedding Light in the Dark". Wired News/Wired. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) "Mainstream physicists have considered autodynamics a crackpot theory for decades" - ^ Woit, Peter. Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law for Unity in Physical Law. p. 213. ISBN 0465092764.
- ^ Byron Preiss (1985). The Planets. Bantam Books. p. 27. ISBN 0553051091.
- ^ Martin Gardner (1957). Fads And Fallacies In The Name Of Science. Dover Publications. pp. pp. 69–79. ISBN 978-0486203942.
{{cite book}}
:|access-date=
requires|url=
(help);|pages=
has extra text (help) - ^ Winfield, Mel E. (2004). The Science of Actuality. Vancouver: University Press. ISBN 0-9739347-0-0.
- ^ Ousiograph, Dressler, Cases and Materials on Criminal Law, Fourth Edition, pages 648-655, 2007
- ^ Goldacre, Ben (2005-01-27). "Testing the water". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, Ltd. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ Structured Water Pseudoscience and Quackery
- ^ Rousseau, Denis L. (1992-01). "Case Studies in Pathological Science". American Scientist. 80 (1): 54–63. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
{{cite journal}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=
(help) - ^ Ray, Gene. Time Cube. 12 Mar. 2007
- ^ Science gone wrong
- ^ William F. Williams, Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, ISBN 0-8160-5080-5, p. 215
- ^ NIH discussion
- ^ New Scientist
- ^ Abrahamson J, Dinniss J., "Ball lightning caused by oxidation of nanoparticle networks from normal lightning strikes on soil", Nature. 2000 Feb 3;403(6769):519-21.