Re: Marriage is under fire!!

From: andy (news4_at_earthsong.free-online.co.uk)
Date: 08/16/04 

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 23:51:50 +0100

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 20:08:37 +0000, Jonathan Kirwan wrote:

> On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 13:12:52 +0100, andy <news4@earthsong.free-online.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>>There is a theory - that human health is related to circulation/movement
>>of an energy (bad word to use because of the western scientific
>>connection) called chi, that this takes different forms which are
>>concentrated in a series of pathways called meridians, that the activation
>>of these meridians varies in a cyclical way which is described by the five
>>elements theory, that it is possible to diagnose energy imbalances using
>>various methods, etc. It's just that most of the theoretical terms, and
>>the signs and symptoms connected with them, can't easily be translated
>>into western scientific terms.
>
> Consider the claim of crystal therapists, Andy, who use pieces of quartz to
> restore the balance and harmony to a person's spiritual energy. (Here again we
> see the use of the term "energy" for something that isn't really defined in any
> form that outsiders can examine and understand.)
>
> So, what does it mean to have unbalanced spiritual energy? How is the condition
> recognized and diagnosed? What evidence would prove that someone's unbalanced
> spiritual energy had been, or had not been, balanced by the application of the
> crystal therapy?

I know - I find some of the New Age stuff pretty bizarre as well. I do
understand the point you're making about falsifiability. I saw something
in the New Scientist about someone who had put up a web page about
'crystal homeopathy' or something, went on a few new age bulletin boards
claiming to be the inventor of this new approach, sparked off some
heated discussion about whether it was valid or not, and then told
everyone he had made up the whole thing to test peoples' gullibility. I
found this funny at the time, because I could see the point of doing that.
As far as I know, there is some real substance to the chinese medical
stuff, which is why I'm defending it. I wasn't expecting to get an easy
time of it on a group like this, but this stuff does matter to me, so I'm
doing my best.

> I don't think it's just a matter of Western versus _other_ methods and
> denigrating them, just because they may not easily fit existing Western science
> thought. It's simply a matter that this isn't science because it has NOT been
> crafted into deductive theoretical language that exposes itself to falsification
> through experimental result.

There is a theoretical language, just not as complex as that used by
western medicine. I'd have to know more about it in depth to say whether
its predictions could be falsified in the way you're talking about. If
chinese medicine was wholly useless, I doubt that it would have lasted as
long as it has - it's not like things like people believing whether the
sun moved round the earth, which didn't make much practical difference to
their lives at the time.

I don't have the energy to reply to the rest of this.
  

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