This week our three hosts discuss a great number of things including how a delusional German physician got away with killing people, and how Pope Francis thinks right to tackle poverty.
Loads of good news this week:
The John Maddox Prize goes to Britt Hermes and Terry Hughes this year, ARP-SAPC reaches 20 years of activity, the Spanish government moves against pseudo-therapies in health care, the BBC upholds the Good Thinking Society’s complaint about a homeopathy-related phone-in and ComCept awards journalist Vera Novais for advocating science as opposed to nonsense. Also, on the less positive side, we report on child marriages no longer being recognised in Sweden, no matter what the culture of the country of origin is, authors of a paper based on a national survey into CAM use in the UK suggest NHS funding for bogus therapies and christian parents threatening legal action for something that wasn’t what it looked like.
And the Norwegian Labour Party gets this week’s Really Right prize for suggesting the revoking of VAT excemption for alternative medicinal practices.
Segments:
Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Right; Farewell and Quote; Outro; Out-takes
Events Calendar: https://theesp.eu/events_in_europe
Show Notes:
00:00:27 Greetings
00:06:21 This Week in Skepticism
Josef M. Issels (November 21, 1907 – February 11, 1998) was a German physician known for promoting an alternative cancer therapy regimen, the Issels treatment. He claimed to cure cancer patients who had been declared incurable by conventional cancer treatments.
00:15:59 Pontus Pokes the Pope
Francis eats lasagna with the poor and then says the world will end.
- https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-11/pope-francis-world-day-poor-lunch.html
- https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/invite-jesus-into-the-storms-of-life-pope-francis-says-68073
00:26:23 Skeptical News
UK: John Maddox Prize announced for 2018
- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/14/former-naturopath-and-scientist-share-john-maddox-prize
- http://senseaboutscience.org/activities/maddox-prize-2018/
- https://senseaboutscience.org/activities/the-john-maddox-prize/
SPAIN: ARP-SAPC publishes number 50 of The Skeptical magazine for the promotion of reason and science, it was published the first in June 1998, more than 20 years ago.
SPAIN: Spain moves to ban pseudo-therapies from universities and health centers
- https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/11/14/inenglish/1542203925_514487.html
- https://elpais.com/elpais/2011/12/28/inenglish/1325053243_850210.html?rel=mas
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/14/spain-plans-ban-alternative-medicine-health-centres
UK: BBC upholds Good Thinking complaint against BBC Radio Leeds homeopathy phone-in
UK: National survey of CAM-use ends up suggesting NHS funding for alternative therapies?
- https://edzardernst.com/2018/11/a-new-survey-of-cam-use-or-is-it-a-promotion-for-more-nonsense-on-the-nhs/
- https://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2018/11/13/bjgpopen18X101614
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1742-1241.2010.02484.x
SWEDEN: Child marriages no longer recognised in Sweden
- https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/barnaktenskapslagen-skarps
- https://www.svd.se/botfall-man-som-vagrar-religios-skilsmassa
PORTUGAL: ComCept Award for Science Journalism goes to Vera Novais
UK: Legal action from Christian parents to stop school’s LBTQ-parade
00:49:58 Really Right: Norwegian Labour party suggests revoking Alt Med VAT exemption
00:55:46 Quote
“Every time we let ourselves believe for unworthy reasons, we weaken our powers of self-control, of doubting, of judicially and fairly weighing evidence. We all suffer severely enough from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the fatally wrong actions which they lead to, and the evil born when one such belief is entertained is great and wide.”
/William Kingdon Clifford/
00:57:46 QSoW Ad
00:59:17 Outro
01:00:32 Out-takes