Despite having a great center of scientific education in their back yard and, to a large degree, because of it – many people living in college towns like Ithaca have many misconceptions about Science. Sadly, the local newspapers in these places do not do much to rectify this. In fact, they usually compound the problem. The article about alterative medicines, which appeared in the January 19 issue of the Ithaca Times, is a case in point.

Liberals and progressives in college towns often look with pity and scorn at all the right-wing, conservative fundamentalists who want to put the ten commandments in our courtrooms, and creationism in our classrooms. We see them as hopelessly close-minded, and we wonder, “How can they be so gullible? How can they not see the truth?” But we are not far behind these people in the credulity department -- we just prefer to do our irrational thinking and proselytizing about a completely different set of creeds. By definition, a fundamentalist Christian, Jew or Muslim believes that all that is written in their respective holy books is true, but a fundamentalist Ithacan seems to believe that truth is found in anything and everything “Alternative”.

Many of us look out from our cozy enclave here in the Finger Lakes, and we see a messed up world. Because the shortsightedness and greed that drives Western culture has resulted in widespread poverty and environmental degradation, it is easy to convince ourselves that all things “alternative” to this Western, capitalistic, patriarchal paradigm must be good, healthy and helpful. Also, since technology is at the root of most man-made catastrophes, and since Science is at the root of most technology, many of us who prefer to not think too deeply about these issues, happily conclude that Science, scientists, and the scientific method are all bad. This myopia, coupled with our gullibility and naïve desire for simple solutions, creates in us the mindset of spectators at an Old West medicine show, and we stand with money in hand, willing to buy whatever the “alternative” snake-oil salesmen sell us. We are New Age suckers.

Most of us have only a modest knowledge of science, we tend to mistrust large institutions, and we are naturally anxious about health issues. These fears make us vulnerable to misinformation and propaganda and, (to be fair to many of the practitioners) we are susceptible to the earnest pleas of well-meaning but deluded believers. But whatever their intentions and motivations, all purveyors of “alternative” medicines prey on our anxiety, and they sell us their particular snake-oil treatment by convincing us that it, and it alone, will cure us. And, more importantly, they all tell us that modern medicine -- the discipline that brought us penicillin, vaccines for small pox and polio, as well as 1000s of other great discoveries -- is somehow unnatural, unhealthy, conspiratorial, and bad. And they chant the mantra, “Science doesn’t know everything!”, thereby conveniently de-legitimizing the scientific method as a way to explore, explain, or debunk their claims.

Over the past 100 years, science-based medicine has saved or extended billions of lives, but proponents of “alternative medicine” want us to believe that it is wrong. How many people has “alternative” medicine helped? What have the homeopaths done in their 200 years? Where are the homeopathic remedies, chiropractic adjustments, and acupuncture needles to save the millions who are dying in Africa of AIDS, cholera, TB and other deadly diseases? What alternative treatments are preventing disease among the recent tsunami survivors? Certainly, the cost of the cures can’t be the issue – one teaspoon of the right homeopathic remedy can be diluted to make trillions of pills. If these “therapies” work as claimed, why is there any sickness in the world at all? Can the alternative practitioners answer this question?

No. And there is no mention by homeopaths, chiropractors, aromatherapists, or any other “alternative medicine” practitioner about actually saving lives or curing people with real illnesses. There is only the hollow promise that if we “balance” our body by using these therapies, we will stay healthy. And, if we do happen to get sick, it is simply because we were not in ‘balance’. Then, if after taking the medicine we still remain ill, we are told it is because we did not do the therapy correctly or because we did not do it soon enough or long enough or because, “We did not have enough positive energy to enable the therapy to work”. If we actually happen to get better while on the therapy, we will surely come to believe that it is what cured us. How can we not believe this? We bought the treatment, and we bought the myth of it! We are sold the hype but we are given no way to measure the treatment’s effectiveness, no impartial studies to read, nothing to compare our results to. This is the strategy of con-artists, not medical practitioners. One thousand anecdotal stories of success, whether true or not, do not equal proof of effectiveness. These stories are not evidence, they are propaganda. The enemy of these practitioners is not modern medicine, modern science, or technology -- the enemy is not even disease -- the enemy of “alternative medicine” proponents is rational thought.

Certainly the medical profession is fallible -- doctors and scientists make mistakes. So, to criticize them for those mistakes, and for their presumptions, is totally fair (and wise) but to continue to condemn the whole of science and science-based medicine, and to continue practicing a discredited, unproved method that is founded on late 18^th century misconceptions about human physiology, is both absurd and dangerous. Just because an idea or practice is ancient, or comes from Asia, or because it was concocted by someone opposed to “Western” ways, doesn’t mean that it actually works!

I am often chastised for making an issue of this. “Who cares?” my friends say, “If somebody wants to believe in homeopathy, that is none of your business. Let them buy the little sugar pills, it’s their money.” This is true. It is their money, and their life. Telling someone to stop believing in homeopathy or chiropractic is like to telling them they should not believe in a god. They will believe whatever they want to believe. But is people’s willingness to believe in alternative medicine enough to make it legitimate? We have freedom of (or from) religion in this country precisely because it is free. Aside from their interminable requests for donations, all religions are cost-free, open, and optional to the public. Anyone can partake of whatever aspects a particular religion has to offer them because the religion is a just a concept. Religious tenets are ideas, and one can accept them, believe in them, practice them, and gain sustenance from them anywhere at anytime -- free of charge. “Alternative” medicine on the other hand, though it may also qualify as a religious belief system, does not purport to be a spiritual or philosophical construct – nor, especially, does it pretend to be the expressed Will of a deity. On the contrary, these new-age practices claim specific material/physical causes and effects, with measurable results and benefits – and they charge money for the privilege of partaking in these so-called benefits. This fact means that all “Alternative” medicines and new-age practices are for-profit businesses, and just like any other business they should be held accountable for their products, services, and claims.

Generally, we Ithacans are libertarians, so we are uncomfortable putting ourselves between nice old Mrs. Jones and her aromatherapist or astrologer. We think, “If she wants to give them money for completely bogus scams, that should be her right”. But would we have such a laissez-faire attitude if Mrs. Jones was conned out of her money by a fly-by-night paving contractor, instead of by a kindly hometown homeopath? I think not. I think we would find the paving guy and run him out of town on a rail. Just look at how willing we are to prevent the likes of Walmart from peddling their wares in our town. But as bad a company as Walmart may be, at least they have something real to sell – and they will give you your money back if it doesn’t work. Do homeopaths offer refunds?

Despite hundreds of years without demonstrable proof of their effectiveness, and despite the admitted inability of the founders and practitioners of “alternative” medicines to explain what physical processes could conceivably account for their claimed “cures”, these medieval, medical Merlins continue to deceive the public and, what’s worse, they continue to get free publicity in many progressive newspapers like the Ithaca Times. Of course the editors of these papers have the right to print any article they choose, no matter how sycophantic it may be -- doing so only amounts to bad journalism -- but by printing ill-informed, uncritical articles about new-age and alternative therapies, the editors are tacitly endorsing these superstitions and quackeries as viable health options for their readers, and that borders on the criminal.