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“Jindal swindle” (Creationism in public schools)

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal delivers the keynote address during Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority event in Washington, Saturday, June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

How does an Ivy League biology major become a creationist? By moving to Louisiana.

In 2008, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the horribly misnamed Louisiana Science Education Act. While it employs meandering and nonspecific language, the law essentially allows public school biology teachers to discount evolution and potentially offers them legal cover if they violate a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and teach creationism. In 2013, Jindal said he would be OK with a public school biology teacher doing so.

I have never spoken to Jindal, and that’s probably best for both parties. But if we had an honest conversation, I really doubt that a man with a biology degree from Brown would own up to believing that the geologic column, transitional fossils, and radiometric dating are hoaxes or demonic trickery. Nor do I think he believes humans were created in their present form 5,000 years ago. He’s saying what it takes to thrive in a state that ranks 49th in education and where 90 percent of residents are Christian. But this political expediency no more lets him off the hook than it did Orval Faubus for having the same incentive when trying to keep black students of Little Rock Central High School.

In the same way that Faubus would deny black teenagers access to an equal school, Jindal is willing to sacrifice the science education of Louisiana students for his political ambitions. On Monster.com, there are 416 jobs for biologists and zero for creationists.

While points for evolution may be interspersed throughout this writing, arguing this position is not the purpose of this post. Rather, I want to highlight that Jindal, Ben Stein, and Pat Robertson complain about creationism being shut out of science class without citing one piece of scientific evidence for it.

If I ever met Jindal, my first challenge would be the same as I give all creationists: “Describe the Scientific Method and use it to explain how creationism works.” Only two creationists have ever responded to this, and neither answered the question. The president of the Quad Cities Creation Science Association conceded he could not do this, while the Facebook page “Atheism is Impossible” cut-and-pasted a lengthy portion of its “about” section, none of which addressed the Scientific Method or evidence for creationism. As we will see, it was instead one run-on logical fallacy. In fact, I have looked into a dozen creationist sites and Facebook pages and found only the logical fallacies of circular reasoning, the appeal to ignorance, the appeal to personal incredulity, and most frequently, negative evidence.

Let’s define the terms:

Circular reasoning, AKA begging the question. This is where one assumes what one is claiming to prove, or where one’s premise and conclusion are the same.

Appeal to ignorance. Where lack of evidence for an alternate position is touted as proof your position is true.

Appeal to personal incredulity. Where an inability to conceive of something is presented as evidence it never happened.

Negative evidence. Pointing out a supposed flaw in an opposing argument without bolstering your position.

Now we’ll look at how these are sprinkled liberally throughout creationist writings. Tiktaalik was a major evolutionary find because it had features of both fish and tetrapods. Committed creationists, while allowing that an animal can adapt over time, are fond of insisting that it is always the same animal. They will borrow from the Mr. Ed theme and declare “a horse is still a horse,” or perhaps, “a spider is still a spider.” They tried this with Tiktaalik, declaring it to be just a fish. Well, it was not just a fish because it had a neck, a horizontally flat head with a skull akin to an amphibian’s, and it lacked a dorsal fin.

Creation.com attempted to counter this by saying that four-legged animals existed 18 million years before the Tiktaalik fossil did. It also argued that Tiktaalik’s pelvis could not bear its weight on land. These could be legitimate points as to what they mean to one portion of one animal’s evolutionary history. But here, they are in the form of negative evidence. Despite its URL, creation.com presents no evidence of Tiktaalik having been created. By the way, its point about 18 million years is an argument of extreme convenience, as a portion of its website is dedicated to proving the universe is only a few thousand years old.

As to the points raised, the fact that four-legged animals may gave predated Tiktaalik does not mean the latter was not a transitional creature. The tree of life has many side branches and twigs, 99 percent of which have died out. Fossils are seldom descendants of other fossils, they are just related to them. They are probably not a 1,000-greats grandson, but rather a 300th cousin, 50 times removed. So a similar, earlier four-legged creature would not lessen the significance of Tiktaalik.

Its pelvis, meanwhile, is consistent with a species in transition from a fish to a land dweller. Not good enough, declared creation.com: “The larger pelvic girdle in Tiktaalik is a sideshow to the main event that evolutionists need to demonstrate what happened between Tiktaalik and Acanthostega.” This is a common creationist ploy, where when a transitional fossil is found, they insist it is no such discovery, but rather another gap to fill in. And again, it is presenting no evidence for its side.

When Atheism is Impossible responded to my query, they did not delve into this type of thinking, but rather chose to affirm the consequent: “A stronger argument for a transcendent and intelligent designer exists than for the instantiation of life as the result of random unknown stimuli affecting a random unknown set of chemicals to create life.”

The page also leans heavily on the appeal to ignorance, as it points out the lack of evidence for abiogenesis. The author considers this to be validation of creationism. Later, he points out the staggering odds humans beat to get here, so it could not have happened by chance, which is the appeal to personal incredulity. It is also more appeal to ignorance because he again offers no scientific evidence for creation.

He’s still not done, getting in a fifth logical fallacy, equivocation. This is using two meanings of the same word in the same sequence, although this is probably more an instance of misusing a word. “It is a leap of faith to declare abiogenesis a plausible explanation for life origins. To go from there to evolutionary speciation is another leap of faith.” First, faith is a necessarily religious principle. Second, even if the more secular term “assumption” is used, that’s not where these ideas stem from. They are based on fossil records, common biological traits, and certain animals evolving only on separated landmasses. It is based on introducing a poison to a Petri dish, which kills most organisms, with the few survivors passing their traits onto their offspring. Tiktaalik was found after a predictive analysis was made that the rocks of Ellesmere Island might contain such a creature.

As to how life got started, Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “We don’t know. It’s one of the universe’s great mysteries.” This is not blind faith, this is admitting we don’t know. When we have this ignorance, searching for the answer is preferable to invoking supernatural explanations, which is appealing to that ignorance.

Atheism is Impossible drones on with still more affirming of the consequent and personal incredulity: “There is clear and convincing evidence of intelligent design. I personally say that any doubt is unreasonable given the observed facts.” Citing order or beauty in the universe as proof of God, while citing God as the cause of this order is circular reasoning. This also assumes a god is the only possible cause of this beauty and nature. It also ignores that organisms which seemed designed are the result of millions of years of incremental increases, which occurred so they could adapt. Today’s animals are winners of the genetic lottery, with the losers being the 99 percent of Earth species that have vanished.

Enough with Atheism is Impossible, we’ll move onto the Discovery Institute. In an anomalous lapse into accuracy, it declared, “Intelligent Design…seeks evidence of design in nature.” It admits to arriving at its conclusion first, then seeking evidence that supports it. This is not science. Science continually tests its ideas in an attempt to disprove them. A person wanting to do a scientific examination of creationism would need to follow the Scientific Method of defining the question, developing an hypothesis, making a prediction, testing that prediction, analyzing the results with sound statistics, and replication.

He or she should then outline the methods, explain the research, and tell how it is falsifiable, observable, and measurable. Finally, they should share data sets, explain the statistical method used, and submit the results for peer review.

Instead, the Discovery Institute gives us this: “Certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not by an undirected process such as natural selection.” I hope by now you recognize as affirming the consequent.

Also trotted out is the hackneyed argument of irreducible complexity, which demonstrates a failure to understand that evolution can work by adding a part and making it necessary. An eye without a retina would be useless, yes, but organisms change over succeeding generations, adapting in accord with their changing environments.

Onto the Institute for Creation Research, which describes its mission as “unique.” Unique means the only one, so I hope they are the only research organization with this in its mission statement: “All things were created and made in six literal days. Life exists because it was created on Earth by a living Creator.” It also lets us know that “A naturalistic explanation for a supernatural event will never be found.” This is reminiscent of the key moment in the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate, when both sides were asked what could get them to change their mind. Nye said “evidence,” while Ham said “nothing.” Biologists always adapt to the evidence and adjust positions when mandated by the science. Creationists declare they will accept no evidence, no matter how scientifically valid, if it contradicts their interpretation of a specific revision of a specific Bible version.

At creation.com, they use the watchmaker analogy, though they change it to arrowheads. This falls flat because if doesn’t account for what created the creator, and thus relies on the logical fallacy of special pleading. This is when one must carve out an exception to one’s main plank in order to make the primary point work. Creation.com does this a second time when it points out how complex even simple molecules are and insist this proves creation. Of course, whatever created the molecule would have to be more complex than it, meaning per this criteria, the creator would need to have a creator, as would that creator, ad infinitum.

Trying to use the complexity of molecules as evidence for creation is also more circular reasoning since it attributes this complexity to a god, then says the complexity proves god. It also throws in some appeal to ignorance and personal incredulity, declaring, “The chemical hurdles that non-living matter must overcome to form life are insurmountable,” and “If it’s unreasonable to believe that an encyclopedia could have originated without intelligence, then it’s just as unreasonable to believe that life could have originated without intelligence.”

These types of arguments go on for pages, the authors never offer anything but logical fallacies, such as “The complex compound eyes of some types of trilobites were amazingly designed. They comprised tubes that each pointed to a different spot on the horizon, and had special lenses that focused light from any distance.”

This is because they evolved that way, having adapted to their environment. Random mutations that were beneficial were kept, those that weren’t vanished. That’s how evolution works, whether Louisiana schoolchildren get to hear it or not.

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“Having a blast” (Angel trumpets)

TRUMPET

For the past five years, humming, metallic sounds from overhead have been reported in Europe and North America. Unlike Yeti sightings, UFO encounters, and out-of-body experiences, these sky sounds have been clearly captured on video.

Potential scientific explanations include atmospheric pressure or the grinding of tectonic plates. More down-to-Earth possibilities are construction and trains. If that’s too pedestrian, other options are aliens and the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, though the latter would require European nations have something equivalent.

But the idea most frequently raised in alarmist circles is that the sounds are angelic trumpet blasts foreshadowing catastrophes. These will continue until the last trumpet blast, which the apostle Paul wrote would be accompanied by deceased believers in Christ ascending to heaven. Or, in a more NC17 sense, corpses will rise from the ground, these floating zombies owing their existence to a human sacrifice.

At chemtrailsinourskies.com, the site maintainer deviates from his usual overhead concern to trumpet this one. He writes that the dozen or so events captured on video, along with extreme weather, is too much write off as coincidental. “These sounds alone can be dismissed, but together with the earthquakes in uncommon places, along with tornadoes, snowstorms in the desert, and volcanoes everywhere, there too many variables hitting the mark at the same time.”

Even this extreme Magical Thinking is too moderate for reader Garry, who posted Biblical references to trumpets, harps, and organs before segueing into this portent of doom: “Does this give you a clue on who’s making those weird loud trumpet sounds? Wake up people, those sounds are letting us know that the lord is on his way.”

In agreement are the gang at Before It’s News. They announced, “All around us are signs that the second coming of Jesus is near.” Also ubiquitous are confirmation bias, communal reinforcement, and subjective validation.

Before It’s News goes on, noting that the Bible stipulates all must persons must hear the message before Jesus returns, and that trumpet blasts count. Gabriel’s horn cacophony is serving as an “Apocalypse Watch,” preceding the warning that will come when the skies open. The sounds portend a worldwide earthquake, in which one-third of all trees are burned, although humans seem to have gotten a head start on that one. Next, one-third of the ocean turns to blood, causing one-third of all sealife to perish. The standard hail and firestorms follow, and into their wake swarm a satanic army of 200 million minions, massacring a remarkably consistent 33 percent of the world populace. Next, there is a second worldwide earthquake, a rather lazy apocalyptic calamity following visions of demon hordes and scorpion/human mutants.

Prophecyinnews.com notes there have been trumpet reports since at least the 19th Century. However, it cautions that “the current rash of incidents are something entirely different. They are deafening booms described as only a few feet away. They are described as complex metallic clanging and crashing, sounding exactly like the crushing destruction of glass and metal.”

More important, “The only precedent for these sounds is found in the Bible, where they accompany climactic events. And this is no ordinary trumpet. It is literally the voice of God, as can be seen from a description of the rapture: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel.’”

So the message is being delivered, when everyone receives it, the world ends. Those who prefer the world remain in place can take solace from the fact they’re forgetting to inform the deaf.

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“Frankenspine” (Chiropractic)

SCP

A few chiropractors are distancing themselves from the field’s metaphysical roots. They are downplaying “Innate Intelligence” and other innately unintelligent notions. Innate Intelligence purports that living organisms possess a vitalism force that enables them to organize, maintain, and heal the body. The other key plank of chiropractic is that vertebral sublaxation causes pain and disease in all areas of the body. Those who still embrace the ideas of chiropractic founder Daniel Palmer are informally called straight chiropractors. Those who, to varying degrees, focus less on the Palmer aspects, are called mixed chiropractors.

While I welcome the jettisoning of unscientific ideas, this seems to be being done by a tiny minority of chiropractors, and I’m unsure if mixed chiropractors are replacing it with anything better. And there’s no evidence to suggest any of them are in Moline, which I suspect may be home to the country’s greatest per capita concentration of straight chiropractors. I know of at least 30 in a town of 43,000. I presume this is because Palmer started chiropractic across the river in Davenport, where it was expanded by his son, B.J. Palmer. Davenport is still home to the Palmer College of Chiropractic.

Before we go further, a key distinction must be made. A subluxation is a partial joint dislocation and is a genuine medical condition. However, Vertebral Subluxation Complex is the unfounded idea that spinal issues will cause disease and pain in other parts of the body. If a vertebra did slip out of place, that could theoretically be called a vertebral subluxation, but this condition would be obvious in an X-ray. Further, the howling victim would be concerned only with getting it back into place, not worried about it leading to a leg rash or heartburn.

Yet most chiropractors tell patients their spine is out of alignment, and that this is causing all manner of disease and pain. They insist a spinal adjustment is needed first to fix this, and then to maintain health. They X-ray the spine, or use some other method, and even if nothing abnormal is revealed, will attribute Vertebral Subluxation Complex to their patient’s tinnitus, asthma, or high blood pressure.

Stephen Barrett at Quackwatch wrote this about trying to pin down chiropractors on how they determine vertebral subluxation:

“Old chiropractic textbooks show before-and-after” X-rays that are supposed to demonstrate subluxations. I challenged the local chiropractic society to demonstrate ten such X-ray sets. They refused, suggesting instead that I ask the Palmer School to show me some from its teaching files. When I did, however, a school official replied: ‘Chiropractors do not make the claim to be able to read a specific subluxation from an X-ray film. They can read spinal distortion, which indicates the possible presence of a subluxation and can confirm the actual presence of a subluxation by other physical findings.’”

Barrett learned methods for determining spinal distortion included feeling the spine, measuring skin temperature, detecting nerve irritation, weighing the patient, studying shadows when light is shone on the back, and concluding that a patient’s leg is “functionally longer than the other.”

I looked at the claims made by Moline chiropractors on their websites. Avenue Chiropractic makes this assertion: “By protecting the nervous system, you are more likely to have uninterrupted nerve supply.” This is either pseudoscientific language or I’m missing out on this steady stream of fresh nerve deliveries that everyone else is getting.

Next, we learn, “There are many types of pain that can be eliminated by a good diet, regular exercise, and maintenance chiropractic care.” Proper diet and regular exercise will generally keep a person healthy, so a person could substitute archery or taxidermy for chiropractic and get the same result.

Uptown Chiropractic goes beyond the standard chiropractic claims and states that sublaxation repair will also heal mental issues. “Mood swings may be the result of a person’s body missing a natural and needed ingredient. Chiropractors take a natural approach to treating these symptoms through diet, supplements, and exercise.” You can’t just snap your fingers to chase a bad mood, but apparently snapping your back will do it.

Meanwhile, Real Health Chiropractic promises patients they will receive “Muscle testing to help determine neurological status and balance the physical, chemical, and emotional imbalances related to the vertebral subluxation complex.” The brain might reveal the reasons for muscular degeneration, but not the other way around. And checking a person’s quadriceps to determine if they are mentally stable seems like a true longshot.

Still, Real Health assures us their care will bring relief to “a spectrum of ailments such as headaches, certain types of migraines, menstrual cramps, allergies, asthma, emphysema, stomach disorders, spastic colon, and arm, hand, and leg pain.” In actuality, there is nothing in reputable scientific literature to success chiropractic can treat this medley of maladies.

The only point I found on any of these websites that I agreed with was from the Birdsell site, which quoted this from the New England Journal of Medicine: “Observational study found that low back pain patients receiving chiropractic care…are more satisfied than those receiving medical care.”

Indeed, there are a few types of musculoskeletal lower back pain that chiropractic is effective for. But Birdsell quickly ventures onto more grandiose terrain. “Chiropractic care addresses many common reasons why people experience pain and other health issues. If something is not right with your body’s foundation, then that needs to be addressed before true health can be achieved.” I’m unsure what the body’s foundation is supposed to be, but from context, I’m guessing the spine. I also have no idea how “true health” differs from “health.” But by diverting everything back to the spine, chiropractors can keep patients coming back no matter what unpleasantness they are suffering from.

Or not suffering from, in the case of chiropractic maintenance. “Once your body has fully healed, it is important to come in for periodic chiropractic adjustments to avoid further problems. This phase of chiropractic care requires a quick visit to the chiropractor one to four times per month.” Birdsell is suggesting up to 48 visits a year for someone who is completely healthy! Maybe on some of these visits, this specimen of ideal health can visit the Birdsell acupuncturist, who offers “qi-gong exercises to further help the patient achieve healing energy, or qi.”

QC Chiropractic suggests it can control ADHD. “Instead of treating the various symptoms of hyperactivity, we look for disturbances to the child’s nervous system. This link between the spine, brain stem dysfunction, and ADHD is common. We recommend a schedule of safe and natural chiropractic adjustments to help reduce the accompanying nervous system tension.”

If the ADHD child also has allergies, perhaps QC Chiropractic can offer a two-for-one special. Because it also claims, “We look for ways to restore your ability to adapt to allergens by locating and reducing disturbances to your nervous system.”

Meanwhile, Jack Chiropractic tells us, “Our office recognizes the hazard that Vertebral Subluxation causes in your quality of life. We believe everyone deserves a healthy life, free of vertebral subluxation.” And I believe everybody is leading such a life.

While there is some disagreement among chiropractors about how much to hold onto its metaphysical past, the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners stated last year, “A subluxation affects the nervous system and may lead to reduced function, disability, or illness.”

Chiropractors are highly distinctive from other doctors. They cannot prescribe medication. Rather than attend medical school, they learn their trade in schools like Palmer and have no residencies after graduation. Palmer and other chiropractic schools are accredited by a private organization run by chiropractors. They are not part of the medical mainstream, nor are they competent to be. They are still following the ideas of B.J. Palmer, who wrote this of disease in general and smallpox in particular: “There is no contagious disease. There is no infection. There is a cause internal to man that makes his body a breeding ground for illness.” Smallpox was later eradicated through a means void of any subluxation correction.

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“Typographical error” (Facilitated Communication)

OUIJA KEYBOARD

Despite Germ Theory, homeopathy still has a market. Despite the geologic column and Lucy, Louisiana public high schools still try to sneak creationism into biology class. So I am a little jaded to report that another completely discredited notion has been resurrected. Facilitated Communication has rebounded from what should have been a fatal blow.

Twenty years ago, it was presented as a major breakthrough that allowed severely autistic persons to communicate through a conduit. Armed with only a keyboard and facilitator who held their hand or elbow, the previously uncommunicative could type words, sentences, even books.

The joy turned to horror when some also typed out allegations of sexual abuse against their father or other persons. This led to testing to determine if Facilitated Communication was valid. Communicators and facilitators were sometimes shown the same object and sometimes shown different objects. The correct answers were typed only when both were seeing the same picture. In the thousands of attempts where a different picture was shown to each, the facilitator typed what he or she saw 100 percent of the time. The seeming watershed breakthrough had really been the ideomotor effect in action, a voguish Ouija Board.

Instead of acknowledging the truth, the science, and apologizing to the falsely accused, some Facilitated Communication proponents repackaged and remarketed the concept. The primary weasel is Douglas Biklen of Syracuse University, which houses a Facilitated Communication institute. After the FC debacle, it now goes by the euphemism “Institute on Communication and Inclusion.” At least one other U.S. school, the University of New Hampshire, champions FC through its Institute of Disability.

In an attempt to stay one step ahead of the skeptics, the term keeps changing, from “supported typing” to “rapid prompting” to “informative pointing” to the most nebulous moniker, “progressive kinesthetic feedback.” But this linguistic lipstick still gets slapped on the same pseudoscience pig.

When things were going well 20 years ago, Biklen supported scientific research into FC. But now he has taken a page from the creationist and naturopathy playbooks. He bypasses peer review to take his message straight to those most yearning to hear it, the parents of severely autistic children. Double blind studies have been replaced by interviews with sympathetic journalists. There have been a series of books, movies, and TV features testifying to the power of FC, all omitting its .000 batting average in controlled studies.

Despite its dismal record, Facilitated Communication is receiving positive reviews, including 15 mentions in peer-reviewed publications. This includes a work by Anna Stubblefield in Disabilities Studies Quarterly. There are none of the stodgy statistics or vernacular usually associated with this type of publication. Rather, Stubblefield labels opposition to Facilitated Communication a form of hate speech in a ramble that more resembles a Facebook post than a scholarly journal entry. Other childish ad hominem tossed at FC critics by proponents included narrow-minded, evil, and jealous.

FC is once again at the center of a sexual assault allegation, with a key difference this time. Stubblefield is accused of sexually assaulting a cerebral palsy victim whom she acted as facilitator for. Her defense is that he typed his consent.

Besides a media campaign and circumventing peer review, another tactic is to play the dignity card and insist we should presume competence on the part of the autistic. But presuming it is different from making it happen for them. We don’t lead the blind by the hand and announce this as proof of sight.

FC also bolsters its position by using qualitative research, which leans heavily on narrative accounts and case studies, and fails to include control groups and randomness. Quantitative research, by contrast, uses controls and numerical data.

Since people will always get sick, there will always be some who gobble a homeopathic pill, with its allure of a quick, complete, painless fix. It seems too, that FC will survive as long as unscrupulous promoters are able to present their case to desperate parents.

 

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“Quantum quackery” (Energy healing)

QQ

Energy healing is presented as affordable, absolute, painless, and free of side effects. The problem for a practitioner, therefore, is how to distinguish one’s self from fellow peddlers of medical magic.

For Quantum Touch clinicians, the strategy is to stress that patients get multiple energies from various Chinese and Japanese techniques. Extending this thought, I wonder if it would be a better idea is to have energy from an original source. Eastern ideas are always said to come from China, Japan, or India. How about some love for Mongolia, Sri Lanka, or Guam?

At any rate, Quantum Touch proponents claim their powers come from exercises focusing on breathing and body awareness. Founder Richard Gordon emphasizes that “all healing is self-healing,” which would seemingly make Quantum Touch unnecessary. Gordon also trumpets its ability for post-surgical patients, though the better solution would seem to be bypassing surgery since Quantum Touch puts a panacea literally at your fingertips.

Like most alternative medicine, Quantum Touch makes liberal use of pseudoscience language. For readers new to the blog, pseudoscience refers to using science terminology incorrectly or using terms that sound scientific, but are not. An example from Gordon’s website includes “spontaneous structural realignment,” which sounds to me like throwing your back out. Then there’s this goodie: “Quantum Touch is a method of natural healing that works with the Life Force Energy of the body to promote optimal wellness. Quantum Touch helps to maximize the body’s own capacity to heal.” Or this one: “Given the right energetic, emotional, nutritional, and spiritual environments, the natural state of the body is perfect health.” Apparently Quantum Touch clinicians have yet to find this proper balance, since they also die.

Other pseudoscience giveaways are fantastic claims not backed by evidence or testing, such as Gordon saying that five minutes of Quantum Touch cured a child’s bowed legs. The claims are also wide-ranging, asserting it can cure traumas, burns, poison oak, and virtually any other pain or illness. For this far-reaching healing ability, no one summoned a Quantum Touch clinician when the train derailed in Philadelphia. Gordon’s website list several patients who reported pain reduction, a good time for my monthly recitation that the plural of anecdote is not data.

Here’s how we know energy healing claims are without merit. As seen earlier, Quantum Touch proponents claim it can cure anything, at least if conditions are right. But it cannot cure or mitigate ALS or Laughing Sickness, which are always fatal. Conversely, some sicknesses such as a runny nose are never fatal and are always followed by complete recovery. It requires magical thinking to credit Quantum Touch with healing someone who was already headed to recovery. The maladies in the middle, such as mild arthritis, are cyclical, so Quantum Touch will eventually “work,” for the same reason treating it with Crunch Berries and strawberry milk will.

Gordon offers workshops, which include, “A series of breathing and body awareness exercises to help you focus and amplify life-force energy.” This is begging the question. It assumes life force energy exists, then uses exercise results to affirm it.

The workshops also teach “how to amplify the power of your sessions by work with chakras, toning and vortexing the life-force energy.” Students also are taught “how to use the Amplified Resonance Technique to turbo charge your own sessions so they have a power similar to a group sessions.” This mix of ancient mystic terms with modern vernacular is how energy healing adapts. Gordon uses “amplified,” “resonance,” “turbo” and “vortex” to sound impressive, but also mixes in New Age buzzwords like chakra and life force energy to toss a cosmic salad.

Energy healing was called animal magnetism by Franz Mesmer in the 1700s. The Chinese invented meridians to explain the flow of something else made-up, chi. This pretend energy has gone by many names, including prana and ki. The alleged source of this energy evolves, with modern incarnations crediting biofields or subatomic vibrations. For those preferring to stay more New Age, we have astral bodies and transcendent beings as the power source.

In advanced training, Gordon teaches physiological happiness, exploration of a new paradigm, and a portal to wisdom. If you’re lucky, you’ll also get a glossary to explain what any of that means.

Whatever students get out of it, they are supremely unlikely to come away with a useful skill. Emily Rosa tested 21 energy healers who claimed they could detect her life force energy. For her test, she placed a partition in front of the Quantum Touch practitioners, who were unaware if she was behind it. They had a 50 percent chance of being correct by guesswork, and still hit just 44 percent in 280 attempts. Her results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association when she was 9 years old. Yes, they were schooled by a 4th grader.

Not that this was a fatal blow. While Gordon started the idea, you can’t copyright quackery. One person who copied the idea was Daniel Metraux, whose website gloats that he is “one of the top 10 Psychic Surgeons on the West Coast.” I was unaware there was such a poll.

The website also notes that his “revolutionary alignment techniques heal and rejuvenate from within.” He provides it, but it’s from within, somehow.

As to how the treatment goes, “The number of sessions that you will need depends on your current level of discomfort, your reception to Daniel’s techniques, and your dedication for becoming healthier.” So if you’re not made healthy, you’re not trying hard enough!

If you’re not sick or hurting, the Holistic Wellness Institute still says come on in. “If there are no specific issues a full body treatment can be given. In this case, a series of hand positions will be used until something comes up to be treated.”

To summarize, you’re not sick, you could heal yourself if you were, pay up.

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“Don’t stress with Texas” (Jade Helm conspiracy theory)

BWIRE

Conspiracy theories are continually being churned, but usually out of sight on the fringes. This arrangement seems to satisfy both those manufacturing the theories and the rest of us. But the theory centering on Jade Helm 15 has come to the surface. Like a nocturnal, threatened Madagascar beetle, it’s so rare to behold one in its full exposure. Yet here it is, germinating in the form of sloppy dry-erase boards, unhinged eyes, and obligatory Third Reich references: http://tinyurl.com/o7se37r

For three months this summer, U.S. Army Special Operations Command will conduct a training exercise in the southwest. That’s the official line. The unofficial line is that the government is preparing to implement martial law.

Chuck Norris wrote, “It’s neither over-reactionary nor conspiratorial to call into question or ask for transparency about Jade Helm 15 or any other government activity.” Norris is correct. That is just asking a question and petitioning the government for redress of grievance. To overreact and be conspiratorial requires responding to a detailed explanation from an Army special operations public affairs officer by telling him you don’t believe a word he said. That was the response one redneck gave to Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria after Lastoria explained Jade Helm’s mission and scope to townspeople in Bastrop County, Texas.

Overreacting and a conspiratorial mindset also involves loosely tying together whatever pieces you can scrounge up to fit your story. Appealing to ignorance and raising questions without seeking answers or being satisfied by reasonable responses are other characteristics.

Fueling much of the Jade Helm conspiracy is the map of the training area, which is broken down into areas controlled by notional armies and paramilitary units. Because conservative states Texas and Utah are labeled “hostile,” this raised concern that President Obama was plotting to squelch the opposition. This highlights the selective thinking necessary to make a conspiracy theory work. Republicans control the legislative and executive branches in Nevada and Arizona, but these states were not deemed hostile on the map drawn by martial law minions.

While continually raising questions of the government, media, and other entities, conspiracy theorists seldom hold their own kind to the same standard. For instance, if Jade Helm is a plot to impose martial law, why would the Obama administration publicly announce its existence and lose the element of surprise?

It is good to question the government and it is advantageous to live in a country that allows it. But the distrust in this case is unfounded. We should be wary of police militarization, but not of military militarization. We should be concerned about warrantless NSA searches, but not of training consistent with the Constitution. We should object to the DEA tactic of seizure without trial, but not of using land after consultation with and approval of landowners and local governments.

If we assume that everything that comes from the government is nefarious, we end up like Dave Hodges at commonsenseshow.com. He opens his Jade Helm coverage with this line:

“One day, we are going to awaken to the reality that our country is no more. There will be no United States, no Constitution, and no civil liberties. National armies will bring lethal force against any and all who resist.”

He doesn’t express concern that this might happen, but insists that it will, which means he will see everything through this doomsday lens.

That’s why Lt. Col. Lastoria, with a name, title, experience, and expertise is dismissed, while credence is given to this report: “My sources, who have current connections to Special Operations Forces leadership, have been told by their former colleagues that the field command leadership of Jade Helm is being kept in the dark as to the full scope and true purpose of Jade Helm.” So some guy tells him that he knows some other guy who says it’s a big secret, and this is presented as reliable information.

A good conspiracy morsel will be tantalizing, fearful, and leave the theorist hungering for more. There always has to be something else being exposed and something more sinister lurking. And though it never quite arrives, it’s always imminent, always on the horrible horizon.

In this vein, Hodges continues: “The commanders are extremely concerned about what is coming and what the Jade Helm leadership and their men are going to be ordered to do. Some military types and their former colleagues have deduced that Jade Helm is about controlling civil unrest.”

With this way of thinking, anything can be tied together. In this case, Hodges finds a connection between a Navy and Army active duty exercise in the Southwest and a Marine Reserve drill in Michigan. In the Michigan drill, Danish and U.S .troops train together, which is a very common occurrence among allied nations.

But Hodges concludes this proves the government has backup plans in case American soldiers won’t kill U.S. citizens. He asks, “Will American commanders and their soldiers comply with the illegal order to fire upon American citizens, or will they have to resort to the use of foreign assets? The appearance of foreign troops on our soil clearly speaks to the fact that the leadership behind Jade Helm is hedging their bets.”

To summarize, training exercises in the southwest and Midwest are proof Danes will kill you. And we thought we had survived the Viking invasion of North America.

Hodges wasn’t through connecting the demented dots. Last week, U.S. military installations upgraded their threat condition from Alpha to Bravo. The government attributed this to ISIS, but Hodges knew better. “The best way to get U.S. soldiers to carry out the use of deadly force against Americans is to issue these orders in an atmosphere surrounded by great fear and apprehension,” he assured us, surprisingly in lower case. Hodges further asserts that Jade Helm participants will kill the power grid, with the U.S. blaming Iran and North Korea.

Hodges may soon find himself of the receiving end of such accusations. Now that Jade Helm is so public, it will have a short shelf life among the most hardened conspiracy theorists. They will consider it a distraction from something even darker, and sites like Hodges that are “exposing” Jade Helm will be part of the government cover-up. And I have that on good authority from a source who knows a guy who knows a guy.

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“Believe it or Rot” (Channeling)

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Esther Hicks does what the voices in her head tell her to. This usually means writing books, giving speeches, recording videos and CDs, and appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Her products and message promise bliss, and Hicks distinguishes herself from other peddlers of the gooey by channeling spirit creatures. She gives them the collective name Abraham, and they impart to her “The Secret,” which holds that positive thoughts will cause the universe to bestow unlimited bounty.

Here’s an example of what’s on Abe’s channel: “When your attention is upon the way you feel, your attention is upon your vibrational climate, your point of attraction, it’s where you stand, which is everything. The way you feel is an indication of what you’re doing vibrationally, and what you’re doing vibrationally is everything about who you’re with, the timing of it, and your ability to realize and translate it.” My vibrational attentions are unable to translate any of that.

There are three main themes to Hicks’ teachings: The universe loves us all; We can create anything with our mind; We are immortal souls. So we are supremely important, there is nothing to fear in life, or in death, and no effort is required for any of this. It would be hard to convince someone in the Third World that all they have to do is imagine running water, electricity, and health care and it will manifest. So Hicks targets the young and wealthy, who already have optimism, a wonderful present, and bright future, so her sales pitch seems more reasonable. Some of the customers have been following her for decades, even though per her teachings, one day of positive thinking is sufficient for lifelong change. It’s also curious that Hicks sells these products, since her overarching point is that persons can wish items into existence.

Here are a few more of Abraham’s gems:

“Avoid anything that causes you to feel any discomfort.” Don’t like work, quit. Aren’t getting along with your spouse, file for divorce. Don’t like Maroon 5, smash the iPod from which they emanate.

“Anything that you can imagine is yours to be or do or have.” Falsely imprisoned? Born blind? Homeless with four children? Play make-believe and it will all go away.

“Stop trying to figure it out.” Thinking, bad. Following Hicks, good.

She has a lecture entitled, “Using a pendulum to figure things out.” But unless she’s teaching physics concepts, I don’t think this will work. Besides the pendulum is unnecessary, since Hicks elsewhere asserts that if you write things down and pretend that you have them, they will manifest.

Positive attitude and belief in one’s self are good starting points. But thoughts must lead to action, which must lead to results, which must lead to consistency. Jonas Salk didn’t cure polio by thinking about it. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs didn’t meditate in their garage about a technological revolution, they built products that made it happen.

The flip side of this is that negative moods are natural, unavoidable, and a necessary part of the creative process. A sense of dissatisfaction with the current status spurs people to improve their personal and professional lives.

Abraham’s message is a rehash of the 19th century New Thought tradition, which taught that “Believing makes it so.” This takes the positive traits of optimism and a good attitude to absurdly impossible heights. I’m unsure if happiness can be bought, but apparently it can be sold, along with wealth, health, and eternal life.

There are obvious dangers to believing you can think away a disease or wish yourself to prosperity. Hicks convinces her followers that feeling empowered is the same as being so. And since she uses undefined terms and esoteric language, she can twist anything make it fit. She also employs Magical Thinking, where any positives are due to her teachings and any failures are due to not adhering to them.

Her husband, Jerry Hicks, had cancer, which the couple swore they would fight not with chemotherapy, but by changing vibrations. They claimed this would vanquish the rouge cells in an afternoon. Here is Hicks’ manifesto on medical care: “Your physical body is sick, what’s been bothering you? What are you worried about? What are you angry about? What are you frustrated about?’ Because that is what is at the root of all of this. And then say, ‘Let it go, let it go, let it go.’”

This wasn’t working, so Jerry ended up going with chemotherapy, but it was too late and he succumbed. The lesson here is, do what Esther says or you’ll die.

 

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“Hippocratic oaf” (Alternative medicine at elite institutions)

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My concern about Reiki being offered in a local hospital morphed into mortification as I looked into how widespread such practices are. It turns out that unscientific treatments are being offered at the highest levels of U.S. medicine, including Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic.

In some states, a degree from a naturopathic college, which has no defined standard of care, helps toward board certification. Energy healing, homeopathy, and acupuncture are inconsistent with biology, chemistry, and physics, and might be rejected by themselves, but are allowed in the back door of hospitals and universities as integrative care.

That’s how otherwise reputable institutions end up endorsing Reiki and therapeutic touch, and why 23 U.S. medical schools offer integrative medicine residencies. At Yale, physician David Katz practices integrative medicine with this logic: “With internal medicine, once I’ve tried everything the textbooks tell me, I’m done. But with integrative medicine, I always have something to try. I never run out of options.” But there is nothing to suggest the likes of homeopathy, Joy Touch, and Gerson Therapy will treat or heal a patient. You could try standing on your head to cure Whooping Cough or subscribing to Golf Digest to relieve gout, but it won’t work, and neither will therapeutic touch or reflexology.

Katz attempts to couch his position as one of flexibility. He told Wired, “It’s close-minded to say the only stuff that could work is the stuff we already know works.” This is a strawman, as no one is saying that. Of course other techniques and medicine could work, which is why research continues.

But there should be evidence a treatment is effective before trying it. Another doctor at an elite institution embracing unscientific ideas is Adam Perlman, director of Duke’s Integrative Medicine program. In the same Wired article, he said, “I don’t just want to focus on getting people on the right medication. Just because you’ve gotten blood pressure in a normal range doesn’t mean you’ve optimized someone’s vitality.” “Optimized someone’s vitality” is the kind of gobbledygook I heard at the psychic and paranormal fair and it is shameful, dangerous, and a violation of the Hippocratic Oath for a medical expert to dispense such advice. Desperate patients and parents will cling to what Perlman and Katz offer and possibly reject proven treatments or gain a false hope that leads to ruin.

It was reassuring to learn that Yale’s medical school also includes Dr. Steven Novella, who takes a dim view of his colleagues endorsing techniques other than medicine. He knows this can lead to cases like a patient of his who had ALS. Unable to accept the diagnosis, the patient found a naturopath who put him on a treatment of natural supplements. Of course, this did as much good for the patient as would have reading Golf Digest while standing on his head.

The types of folks who treat ALS with herbal supplements often speak in hushed tones of secret cures being repressed by universities, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry. This is absurd for two reasons. One, these entities are portrayed as being only in it for the money, while simultaneously rejecting a treatment what would make them billions. If these ideas worked, there would be research, not repression. Second, despite dehumanizing terms like Big Pharma, institutions are run by people who get sick and who have loved ones. If they suppressed a leukemia cure, that’s a cure that would be unavailable to them if they got the disease.

Novella compares a university medical center embracing energy healing to its astronomy department hiring an astrologer. British epidemiologist Ben Goldacre concurs, saying it’s like using flaws in the airline industry to justify buying a flying carpet.

Novella reports that the ALS patient came back to him, but only after wasting one of his few remaining years. He also had to deal with the extra angst of knowing he had spent a year being taken advantage of while at his most vulnerable. As another example, Novella said, “No acupuncturists are up front about the reality of what they do. They’ve got Chinese medical charts with qi and meridians on the walls. And they instill in the patient hostility to science-based medicine and our notion of health and disease.”

But because of marketing and scientific ignorance/stupidity, alternative medicine practitioners can get away with promoting homeopathy as a cure for Parkinson’s or touting Chelation Therapy as a treatment for Alzheimer’s. And these kind of tragedies happen all the time. Studies from Norway, Japan, and South Korea reveal higher mortality rates and lower quality of life for cancer patients who pursue complementary and alternative medicine. Even worse is Homeopaths Without Borders. These vultures go to Third World countries in the wake of disaster, selling worthless cures that further victimize the displaced.

Alternative medicine proponents often include an appeal to nature, accompanied by a false historical narrative about how much better it was when people lived in harmony with it. But as Slate science and health editor Laura Helmuth put it: “People died young, and they died painfully of tuberculosis, tonsillitis, fever, childbirth, and worms. History…dispels romantic notions that people used to live in harmony with the land or be more in touch with their bodies. Life was miserable and full of contagious disease, spoiled food, malnutrition, exposure, and injuries.”

Persons dealing with serious conditions want quick, easy, and total solutions. Mainstream medicine cannot deliver this and won’t claim to. Alternative medicine, meanwhile, makes the claim but not the delivery. That’s why ideas like the ones expressed in this post can engender so much rage. These are terrifying truths that threaten false hope. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America runs ads with patients talking about how other doctors gave them no chance, whereas the Center delivered hope. However, that hope includes naturopathy, an umbrella term that encompasses energy healing, herbs, and spirituality. Hope, yes. Successful alternative cancer treatment, no.

 

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“Alt-delete” (Quack medicines)

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Because people don’t like being sick or seeing their loved ones suffer, alternative medicine is always going to find fertile ground, literally if using sandalwood to cure dyspepsia.

Often, ancient (or allegedly ancient) mystic practices are updated for the times. For instance, a Shaman may use a beeping device to locate harmony imbalance. The most straightforward attempt I’ve seen at combining ancient nonsense with the modern is the bio-ching, a portmanteau of biorhythms and the I-Ching.

Biorhythms is the pseudoscientific notion that our lives are impacted by rhythmic cycles, usually said to be based on our birthdate. For example, one’s performance in an office presentation will be good, bad, or so-so, depending on where one’s biorhythm cycle is at. Meanwhile, the I-Ching is a form of Chinese divination based on a book with 64 hexagrams. Mixing the two superstitions are Roderic and Amy Sorrell, who wrote a computer program that includes 512 biorhythm traits that are randomly matched with an I-Ching hexagram. The results can be interpreted to tell you how to deal with your sore throat or mild anxiety.

For maximum results, $250 a day will get you into the Sorrell home for a deeper analysis. The price includes room, board, and access to 100 percent of the world’s bio-ching clinicians. For double the price, you get to stay on their houseboat, presumably providing access to dolphin telepathy.

But you may be able to avoid the bio-ching altogether if you first consult an aura therapist. These folks maintain the aura can foretell if the body is about to get hit with a disease, then preemptively zap it.

Types of aura therapy include therapeutic touch, a form of hands-off energy healing, and aura-somatherapy, which is not a parody despite being described thusly: “a holistic soul therapy in which the vibrational powers of color, crystals and natural aromas combine with light in order to energize and harmonize the body, mind and spirit of mankind.” I tried mixing many of the words in this sentence and noticed it didn’t change the meaning any. The new sentence: “a harmonizing spirit therapy in which the holistic mind and vibrational powers of natural color and crystals combine with aromas to energize the soul of mankind.”

For those who prefer medicine that goes beyond two empty hands, we have laser wand crystals, which center on “detecting disturbances in the auric field.” It is described as using the crystal’s electromagnetic field to balance the aura and protect the patient by preventing disease from striking in the first place. I rubbed one of these on me at the psychic and paranormal fair and haven’t had a disease since!

While at the fair, I frequently heard peddlers tell me they just felt the energy or sensed the power. These are decidedly unscientific ways of deducing illness and finding cures, and with these techniques, claims are limited only by the imagination. That’s how you end up with lines like “accessing the meridian of the primary chakra to unblock the flow of auric energy.” Trying proving someone did NOT do that.

If promising to balance chakras or restore harmony, there is no way to test these claims. You can’t tell if it failed or worked. But if using alternative techniques to cure or mitigate pain or illness, they might occasionally seem to work for a number or reasons. For one, many illnesses and discomforts are cyclical, and may have run their natural course or be in lull.

Also, the attention from a caring, mysterious healer can make a person feel better, at least mentally. This can enhance the placebo effect, where suggestion, belief, expectation, and reassessment can seem to make a difference and perhaps even lead to physical changes.

I am sometimes asked, “If the patient thinks it’s working and feels better for it, what’s wrong with using it?” What’s wrong is that the patient may later opt to use these techniques to deal with a more serious condition. Persons have died when using energy healing, crystals, and dieting to battle diseases that could have been cured with real medicine.

Also, patients may credit the alternative treatment if it’s used in conjunction with genuine medical care. This again raises the danger that they may later use the alternative practice exclusively, owing to convenience, price, or comfort. Since they’re not medicine, alternative treatments are free from side effects, overdose, and addiction. Their practitioners are also much less likely than a doctor to acknowledge deficiencies. A shaman at the fair who incorrectly diagnosed me with upper back pain blamed the failure not on himself, but on the room’s unbelieving, negative energy. Must have been the one I brought with me.

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“Nothing to sea here” (Atlantis)

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Atlantis is a make-believe continent that sunk after a doomsday combination of earthquakes and floods. It originated in the mind of Plato, who wrote about it in his tales “Timaeus” and “Critias.” It was part of a discussion of utopian societies, similar to Candide, and Plato was no more describing real events than was Voltaire.

Shakespeare used real places, but was unconcerned with geographic accuracy. He might have an Army reaching its destination in an unrealistic amount of time or an inland city with a coastal view. Where it was mattered not near as much as what was happening. It was the same thing with Plato’s tales. University of Arizona philosophy professor Julia Annas has said persons who read Plato and are inspired to scour the seabed are missing the author’s intent.

There are no records in Greece referencing a battle between Atlantis and Athens, which Plato had raging 8,000 years before he described it. While most persons asserting an authentic Atlantis paint it as ideal and greatly advanced, Plato described its inhabitants as vain and warlike. This is a relatively minor alteration compared to other changes made by those who try and make Atlantis fit their description.

Several locations for Atlantis have been offered, many of them outside the Atlantic, which requires taking Plato’s tale literally except for the most prominent detail. Some even find the Earthbound hypotheses too restricting and embrace the idea that Atlantis residents were aliens who sunk the island with futuristic technology gone awry or through a nuclear civil war. Atlantis residents have been credited with the primitive (cave paintings) and the advanced (airplanes centuries before the Wright Brothers).

Some refused to accept the idea that a utopian society vanished, and insisted tangents of it survived. Ignatius Donnelly wrote a 19th century book that suggested Atlantis refugees sired the Egyptian, Mayan, and Irish civilizations. Crediting Atlanteans with teaching Egyptians and Mayans how to write and build pyramids requires ignoring those civilizations’ gradual development, and their different alphabets and architecture. The idea that Mayans (and Aztecs) were of Atlantean descent began when Europeans encountered them, fueling both apocalyptic and utopian ideas.

Multifaceted psychic Edgar Cayce reported a vision that Atlantis had been situated on Bimini in the Caribbean and was doomed by some type of out-of-control fire crystals. Some hold that these crystals still misfire, sinking ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle.

The notion that a large land mass had sunk was disproven by continental drift and plate tectonics. Additionally, sonar has revealed nothing as big as Australia (or even Tasmania) on the Atlantic Ocean floor. Furthermore, Plato’s tale had the war raging in 9000 BCE, much further back than any of the evidence ever uncovered for civilization in the Mediterranean Basin.

So keeping Atlantis in the Atlantic became even more problematic and the idea that it had been a real place became even fainter. Filling the void was Charles Berlitz, who penned a book on Atlantis, completing his trite trilogy that also included works on Noah’s Ark and the Bermuda Triangle.

The legend of the Lost Continent continues to adapt and works continue to be churned out. There is an Atlantipedia website and this millennium has seen at least three books dedicated to the premise that Atlantis was real.

Andrew Collins posits that a Phoenician colony in Iberia had contact with ancient American civilizations. Their combined efforts becoming Atlantis, located near Cuba. He considers many similar creation myths from Europe, Africa, and America as proof. This appeal to ignorance is the same tactic used by proponents of ancient aliens, Zermatism, and creationism. They insist that a motif of somewhat similar stories across different times and cultures prove their case. Tales like the ones they cite speak to man’s fondness for literature, adventure, and romantic ideas, but nothing more.

Perhaps the most wildly speculative of the contemporary authors is Herbie Brennan. From his work:

“The sudden appearance of five centers of civilization about 5500 years ago indicates an invasion from space.”

“Generally it is assumed that gods were invented by humans about 5600 years ago.”

Those two ideas lead to this one: “The conclusion is obvious: the Atlanteans were gods.”

Some try to bolster the Atlantis case by pointing out that 19th Century archeologist Heinrich Schliemann found Troy, which Homer had written about. The crucial difference is that the ruins of Troy were where Homer described the ancient city as being. Troy was also part of Greek culture and art, whereas Grecian references to Atlantis began and ended with Plato.

In 1969, seismologist Angelos Galanopoulos proposed that Atlantis was the island Thera, which experienced a volcanic eruption in 1500 BCE. However, Galanopoulos had to argue that a zero had been erroneously added and that the lost continent had sunk just 800 years before Plato spun his tale. Galanopoulos had to change the definition of Atlantis to prove it existed. He also failed to explain why Plato would change the name of the location when he was said to be relating a historic event.

Besides the date, the location is another distinction that must be altered to make Atlantis into a real place. Plato’s description was “outside the Mediterranean at a distant point in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Some use “outside the Mediterranean” as license to place it anywhere in the world. Rand Flem-Ath picks Antarctica, while John Allen goes with Bolivia. These choices ignore the whole sunken part. At least Julis Evola remembered that distinction when pegging the North Pole as its location.

Like any utopia, racists have gotten involved. Most Atlantis proponents fudge on dates or locations, but it was the character of its citizens that Helena Blavatsky altered to fit her views. She considered Atlanteans to be the fourth in a series of gradually ascending races that continued to until the perfect race, hers.

Atlantis continues to captivate people’s imaginations because it offers hope that lost ideals or untapped human potential will someday be uncovered. It’s not the masonry blocks that fascinate, it’s the advanced nature and ability of the persons who laid them. It appeals not to those interested in Pompeii and Angor Wat, but to those enthralled by UFOs and angels.

Like Bigfoot, ghosts, and ESP, skeptics can’t prove Atlantis doesn’t exist. But until a submerged continent with ruins suggesting a greatly advanced, seafaring civilization from 10,000 years ago is found in the Atlantic, the onus is on the other side.