Religion and the Skeptics
by Yves Barbero
Reprinted from October-December, 2007 BASIS
.Bay Area Skeptics does not make judgments on question of religion or personal faith in divine events unless fraud or scientific claims are involved. (Statement of Purpose, 1991)
An intriguing book came across my desk recently, the “PG-13 Bible” compiled by Richard Kirschman of Dogtown, California (2006, Villca Qutu Publishers). It can be gotten easily on-line. I found it an interesting “read.” It is, word-for-word, the first five chapters of the Old Testament with the passages that conflict with modern Western values in bold-faced type.
He writes, in the one page preface (the only comment he makes in the book), “These are passages that, for example, condone slavery, promote violence, degrade human sexuality, and demand death for non-believers, unfaithful wives, and children who disobey their parents.” His reason (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) for the “PG-13” designation is that parents should be cautioned before allowing children to read the Bible.
He plans another edition to fill out the Old Testament, and a third for the New.
Flipping through the book reminded me of the story I heard about Gideon Bibles in hotels naturally falling open to the pages with racy passages because they had been well-thumbed by traveling salesmen.
Sixteen years ago, when the Bay Area Skeptics adopted its Statement of Purpose, from which the opening quote of this column is taken, we wanted to keep the door open to anyone wishing to expose paranormal fraud. For instance, both Roman Catholics and skeptics object to fortune telling. Catholics think it attributes powers to individuals that properly belong to God, and skeptics know it doesn’t work.
On other issues, such as “scientific creationism,” now re-labeled “intelligent design,” most religious people don’t buy them and accept the real science (they certainly want their kids to have a proper science education).
It is only a boisterous minority that wishes to impose literal Genesis on the rest of us. Speaking for myself, I believe it is a confidence scheme designed to bypass the separation of Church and State in public schools. Others will argue that there is a sincere belief on the part of many that Biblical Genesis is not only absolutely true, but good science. Whatever the reason, it works to corrupt the science classroom.
This policy has paid off beautifully. We’ve had many sincerely religious people either as members or cooperating with us. Their contributions have been invaluable.
Of course, I had motives of my own for supporting the policy. I was a union official at the time, and could have nothing to do with an atheist organization because many union members would feel uncomfortable dealing with me if I did. The AFL-CIO (which closely studies voting patterns within its membership) estimates that a quarter of union members belong to charismatic or fundamentalist groups, and will often vote against “their best economic interests” because of their socially conservative views, which tend to be promoted more often than not by politicians’ interests that are not always friendly to the working family. This number is slightly more than in the general population.
In 1991, the image of religion that the Bay Area Skeptics was using was that of the corner Presbyterian, or friendly Catholic. While many of us held strong views on social questions (and our ranks have always, thankfully, included the entire political spectrum, from libertarians to labor activists like me), we saw no reason to insert ourselves in esoteric debates concerning theological questions. It may seem strange to some of us that a human being can be denied entrance to the clergy because of the lack of a penis, but on what basis can we make a judgment about this or any other dogma? Dogma can’t be measured or quantified. It is just stated by believers.
Another reason I supported the mission statement was a then recent experience I had at my trade union. A prospective member (because he got a job with a signed company) refused to join the union on the grounds that, “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). I suggested that we tell the guy that he was being employed, not enslaved. Maybe we should have argued that since a company and a union sign a contract, often called a “Master Agreement.” He was serving only that. The more experienced officials had a good chuckle at my expense. They knew it would be a waste of time, especially if the guy belonged to a particularly insular fundamentalist sect with interpretations of scripture that reflected the biases of an individual preacher.
The actual complete quote is “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” I find it a bit of a stretch to think this applies to modern labor practices. In fact, it reads more like advice than a strict command. But who am I to fly in the face of 70 years of organized labor experience?
Under the law, no one can be forced to join a union, but they can be made to pay an “agency fee,” usually amounting to the same as dues, since unions are legally obliged to negotiate for all employees. Since the 1935 Wagner Act, which gave unions legal recognition, just about everything has happened, including opposition by religious groups (often encouraged by employer donations). Unions do not have a religious test, a gift they borrowed from the founders of the Republic. Bay Area Skeptics has wisely followed that model.
Of course, things have become more muddied since our official incorporation in 1991 as a 501(c)3 non-profit. It is hard to avoid religion since issues are no longer just fortune telling or some other ancient scam. The attempt to hijack public high school science classes is only the beginning.
For example, claims are made on the teaching of sexuality. Are “abstinence only” programs effective? Statistics suggest not. Nevertheless, millions in public money are being diverted to them, often to thinly disguised religious groups acting as “contractors,” instead of to effective programs teaching kids how to live healthy, including sexual, lives.
How should we handle discipline in schools is another issue. Do we teach students to just obey authority (a model favored by many socially conservative religious groups), or do we teach them to think for themselves? In the former case, will kids grow up to be able to say “no” to authority, including religious authority? I’m one of those people who think that the so-called “no child left behind” curriculum is designed to promote rote learning, allowing kids to grow up to become little more than consumers to be exploited by Wal-Mart and the like. “No child left behind” lacks the ability to spark individualism.
These are certainly issues that should concern skeptics.
“Kirschman feels that the ‘PG-13 Bible’ could be used as a handbook for non-believers, who could cite the contradictions as a basis for their atheist beliefs,” wrote Samantha Gilweit in the October 11, 2007 edition of the Point Reyes Light. She reported that he also hopes it’ll help moderate the views of the religious.
Moderate religious folk are usually better educated and already see the Bible more as a moral guide than an accurate history. For the rest of the faithful masses, it strikes me that powerful political forces, combined with cynical religious figures, see them as something to keep in line with simplistic formulas that have little or no bearing on the original Christian teachings. I do not think that views are easily changed. It is no accident that a good many militant atheists come from a strict religious upbringing. Conversions are sudden in both directions. Moderation, as Kirschman would desire it to be, is either there or it is not. It is a question of personality. It does not form easily from extremism (my senior union officials understood this principle better than I did).
We, in Bay Area Skeptics, have long been organizationally moderate, whatever our individual views, and Kirschman’s book, instead of being used as an extreme tract to promote any sort of militancy, can be a useful tool by already moderate people. Since most people do not think deeply about religious matters and if they express any religion feelings, it is habit or ritual (church weddings for instance), the book could be a starting point for thinking about religion in a less superficial manner.
Mainstream Christianity, despite the periodic resurgence and occasional political success of over-the-top social conservatives, has long ago adopted the “modernist” model (non-literal) view of the Bible.
We should be pleased with that. It is not our place to tell people what to believe. But it is our place to encourage critical thinking, and Kirschman’s book helps us in that task.
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Cosmetic Acupuncture: I’ve Got Youth Under My Skin
by Paul DesOrmeaux
Reprinted from October-December, 2007 BASIS
According to practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), acupuncture has a myriad of useful applications. It not only relieves pain by painfully pricking a person with needles, but it can repair every ailment and disorder imaginable, from hair loss to infertility to flatulence, as well as recently invented ones, such as restless leg syndrome. One of the newest applications is the acupuncture facelift, which is a less expensive version of the traditional facelift where skillful reconstructive surgeons reshape your bank account.
Like other TCM’s, acupuncture is based on reliable, time-tested ancient Chinese wisdom, like the practice of protecting buildings and homes by framing entrances with pictures or names of early door gods, like Shen Tu & Yu Lei who kept dangerous animals and evil spirits away.
Acupuncture is the medical art of sticking human hair-sized needles into human (and animal) skin at specific points on the body to cure diseases, relieve pain, and stimulate the central nervous system, which is quite logical if you really don’t stop and think about it. In fact, this primitive, fanciful procedure was developed before ancient physicians actually understood the concepts behind diseases, pain, and little rubber hammers.
According to facial rejuven-ation acupuncturists, puncturing the human skin with tiny needles can eradicate wrinkles, deflate puffiness, firm up the skin, and erase blemishes and discoloration, which will give the patient the illusion of traveling back in time. What’s the theory behind this procedure? Like evolution, it’s only a theory, but it goes something like this:
Whether trying to cure Tourette’s Syndrome or trying to lift a sagging fanny, the pseudoscience behind acupuncture is essentially the same. Just under the human skin are yet-to-be-discovered pathways called meridians, which are yet-to-be-reproduced in any standard anatomy text. Luckily for acupuncturists, these channels, which supposedly nourish the body’s organs, are slightly below the skin. Any deeper, let’s say like bee-sting depth, and return customers would be as rare as polka-dot houses.
How do acupuncturists know such avenues exist inside the human body? Because ancient Chinese philosophers and physicians, who believed that numbers were magical and dragons controlled the weather, said so. That’s right. After years of unscientific testing, conducted by poking and stabbing and sticking needles into every available plot of human skin and studying the results, the “researchers” eventually created an acupuncture energy chart.
This Rand-McNally-like, human-shaped road map offers a pictorial representation of specific meridians and acupoints within and on the human body. Originally, 365 acupoints were identified, one for each day of the year, and 366 during leap years. Today’s revised charts identify up to 2,000 acupoints, which can be partly attributable to inflation and partly to the fact that human bodies are expanding.
Within these make-believe channels flows an undiscovered substance called qi (pronounced “chee” as in Chia Pet), which is some undefined form of energetic energy. Traditional Chinese medicine claims that almost every disorder affecting mankind— including sagging jowls, multiple chins, and facial wrinkles and lines—are caused by blockage of qi in some way or another, which in turn disrupts the mysterious yin and yang (coincidentally, also a personal injury law firm) balance that’s required for a healthy body. In other words, when yin and yang are not in sync, well, imagine an elephant hopping onto the high end of a teeter-totter with a chipmunk sitting on the low end.
Without the free flow of qi - along with body fluids, blood, and beer - through the meridian, there’s no end to the havoc that can ensue, such as pimples. In other words, either the “pipes” need to be unclogged or, alternatively, some kind of bypass system, like a “bridge” over the river qi, needs to be constructed. And since there’s no TCM mechanism for the latter, it’s much easier and more practical to simply clear the channels.
Purportedly, elimination of these obstructions is accomplished by inserting fine, sterile, stainless-steel needles into the skin at various “acupoints” and depths. How meridians are cleared by sticking needles perpendicularly into them is beyond my knowledge. A reasonable person might think that, instead of unblocking anything, if a slew of needles are poked into a conduit flowing with energy, it might start leaking qi like a soaker hose, but then again, I’m not up on my ancient Chinese wisdom.
It’s true that faces, as well as bodies, naturally get beat up over time by the aging process, the weather, eating habits, stress, smiling excessively and road-rage confrontations. As humans approach their expiration dates, science tells us that for scientifically sound physiological reasons, the outer skin layer (epidermis) and the dermis thin out, liver spots appear, the skin’s strength and elasticity weaken, the skin dries up, and blemishes multiply. This happens most commonly during the lifecycle phase referred to as “the golden years.”
Those who believe these changes are caused by natural aging processes would be considered uniformed and boneheaded by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. According to acupuncture theorists, the fault lies with qi deficiency. Acupuncture facial rejuvenation, or the acupuncture “lift,” is meant to reverse this unnatural aging process by treating the patient like a pincushion. Surprisingly, even though Chinese medicine is considered an anti-aging medicine, life expectancy is currently higher in U.S. than China. Go figure.
Until recently, the only available sources for facial rejuvenation have been dermatologists, plastic surgeons, or Suzanne Somers. However, with the advent of this TCM alternative, the simple insertion of needles in the body and face in up to 70 different acupoints (colorfully illustrated on the human-shaped acupuncture chart) can result in a perma-pressed patient.
Since most TCM’s rely on traditional unscientific methods, facial renovation doesn’t necessarily require that every needle needs to be inserted where you might think they could do the most good: the face. External manifestations of aging may actually be caused by imbalances in other body organs, such as the spleen or liver. Therefore, inserting additional needles in the neighborhood of the spleen or liver or other organs can ensure that, while you’re being restored to a former self, you can also use the occasion to hire yourself out as a voodoo doll.
What’s the reason for this newest treatment for facial rejuvenation? Besides the general decline in overall critical thinking skills and scarcity of the skepticism gene, cost is a major factor. Surgical facelifts can set a patient back anywhere from $10,000 to as high as a yearly cable-television bill. Although Botox injections are a cheaper alternative, its effects are limited, and anyway, most people cringe at the idea of having their faces stabbed by needles. On the other hand, cosmetic acupuncture costs about one-quarter of the surgical alternative, which leaves extra money for psychic readings, recovered memory sessions, and a tank of gas.
Besides cost, another appealing feature is that cosmetic acupuncture doesn’t involve yucky surgical techniques, such as incisions, acid peels, shots, stitches, or scars that need to be hidden by unnatural-looking hairdos. Also, sessions are brief (ten 45-60 minute sessions for up to 16 weeks), recovery time is quick, and side effects are minimal; in only a few hours or days, the dartboard appearance clears up. With periodic refresher sessions, the illusion can last from 3-5 years.
Acupuncture beautification claims are actually quite amazing: body-fluid circulation increases, facial skin and muscles snap back to attention, cracks are filled in, extraneous chins are eliminated, skin is cleared, and eyes are brightened…everything but teeth whitening and nose-hair trimming.
As an added benefit, reconstructive acupuncturists promise not only a facial makeover once the meridians are opened up, but also a complete body renovation. With each successive acupuncture therapy, patients have reported that their energy levels increased, they slept more soundly, they digested food better, and they hit more homeruns.
What proof is there that facial rejuvenation acupuncture works? As is usual with any pseudoscience, it’s difficult to evaluate when you’re relying on imaginary evidence. After all, acupoints are arbitrary, and meridians and qi are harder to find than Bigfoot hair samples. So-called clinical trials and studies have been poorly designed, probably on purpose. Most available evidence is generally based on acupuncturists’ assurances and claims, anecdotal evidence, testimonials from patients who are only identified by their initials, and the reliability of the patient’s self-delusion perception.
As is often the case with most TCM’s, cosmetic acupuncture is touted as a complimentary treatment, meaning it’s usually supplemented with creams, minerals and vitamins, spa treatments, lifestyle recommendations, dietary suggestions, upbeat attitudes and sunny dispositions. If there’s any perceptible, positive outcome at all, what or who gets the credit? The needles, the mud pack, the facial swelling after the trauma of dozens of needles, new lighting, the money that may otherwise have been wasted?
The likeliest candidate, of course, is the placebo effect, in which the patient is under the illusion that the treatment works. This phenomenon is the well documented psychological state that TCM practitioners depend on to pay the rent. If clients leave feeling good about themselves, they will likely believe they look marvelous, that is, until an honest acquaintance over-estimates their age or a stranger mistakes them for Andy Rooney. Only then might a former acupuncture facelift advocate start searching the Yellow Pages for a licensed cosmetic surgeon or maybe a traditional Chinese medicine malpractice attorney.
As is true of almost every alternative medicine claim, the acupuncture facelift as an anti-aging procedure fails to live up to its promise under strict scientific scrutiny. On the other hand, as always I’m keeping an open mind. If there are any reconstructive acupuncturists out there who are familiar with the precise acupoints that will give me a full head of hair again and return my vision to 20-20 - results we can actually measure - contact me. Any takers?
Humorist Paul DesOrmeaux teaches writing at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Monroe Community College. His goal is to introduce skepticism to a broader audience by combining reason and science with humor/satire to expose myths, pseudoscience, fraudulent claims, and nonsensical ideas.
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| Andrew Fraknoi Is Named 2007 California Professor of the Year  Foothill College Astronomy Instructor, and Bay Area Skeptics adviser, Andrew Fraknoi, M.A., has been named the 2007 California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement & Support of Education (CASE). Fraknoi was selected from more than 300 top professors in the United States. The 40 national and state winners of the U.S. Professors of the Year Award were honored at a luncheon and evening reception in Washington, D.C. Nov. 15
The U.S. Professors of the Year Award Program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country-those who excel as teachers and influence the lives and careers of their students. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious awards honoring undergraduate teaching. "So often what happens behind the doors of our nation's college classrooms is left only to the public's imagination," Fraknoi said. "Yet, it is behind those doors that the crucial transformation of our students from kids to adults and from passive to active learners happens. My life's missions have always been to share the excitement of astronomy with those who are not particularly science-oriented and foster in my students a lifelong interest in the wonders of the universe." A distinguished astronomy educator with a national reputation, Fraknoi is a longtime, community college instructor, textbook author, and prolific writer and speaker. During his career in education, he co-founded Astronomy Education Review, an online journal; founded the Cosmos in the Classroom Symposia for college faculty; and served as the executive director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) for 14 years. He has been a member of the Foothill College faculty and chairman of the college's astronomy department since 1992. |
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