Earlier today I tweeted that I’d just overheard a woman in the medicine and science section of Blackwells saying “I can’t find a book on homeopathy” I commented that I should blooming well hope not!
This attracted the attention of someone who wanted to know why I thought homeopathy didn’t belong there, to which I could only reply that it’s not scientific medicine.
Thinking about this exchange led me to ponder the similarity between homeopathy and intelligent design. I don’t intend to get dragged into the kind of fruitless slanging matches James McGrath gets into over comparing creationism and mythicism mind you!
I am, however suggesting there is a basic similarity: Both seek to clothe their beliefs in the language of science, while being unable to satisfy the criteria of science. In a way that, of course, pays a back-handed compliment to the power of scientific explanation, while entirely subverting the methodology that lies at the heart of the enterprise.
But enough serious observation. I invite you to enjoy a little Mitchell and Webb instead:
