The Internet: Home of the Quack

Last updated on: December 30, 2014 at 4:25 pm by Mark Shea

The Internet: Home of the Quack 2014-12-30T16:25:06-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So some news article shows that you have a lot of harmless and beneficial microbes living on and in you. Educated people already knew that (there’s been a book called Life on Man out for years).

Some Internet dwellers, however, think that any headline they read there means that this is the New Thing and announce the old news to the world while drawing reckless and dumb conclusions like “Germ theory delusions collapse as new science reveals healthy people carry 10,000 different germ strains at all times

Then we are informed of pseudo-knowledge like this:

The human body is essentially a “germ” factory, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. A new study published as a series of reports in the journals Nature and Public Library of Science (PLoS) debunks the widely believed germ theory, or the belief that all germs are “bad,”

Um. Only an idiot believes all germs are bad. And that’s not what ‘germ theory’ means. Germ theory means that many diseases are caused by microbes and not evil spirits or bad humours or comets, which is, you know, true.

The article then continues:

In essence, this cohort of field experts uncovered something that many of them had never before considered, mainly that not all bacteria is detrimental.

There is something deep in the bone of the semi-educated that feels the need to believe that the expert is a fool. So the semi-educated invents the absolutely mind-numbing falsehood that “experts” have “never before considered” that not all bacteria are detrimental. It’s like a child lecturing his mother in the most condescending tone on the new that Santa is not real.

Or an atheist announcing to a Catholic that Catholics have done bad things, usually with some sort of lofty, “I hate to break it to you” or “You apparently are not aware that…” Yeah. Living in the US keeps you completely shielded from critical remarks about the Catholic faith and comfortably ignorant inside a bubble of downy soft pro-Catholic agitprop 24/7. The people who are swooping into Leah Libresco’s comboxes to announce to her the news that the Catholic Church is absolutely and totally worthless and its entire 2000 year intellectual and spiritual tradition has not one redeeming feature anywhere remind me of nothing so much as the people at the website above, who manage to pass from “not everything about western medical practice is unquestionable” to “GERM THEORY IS A HOAX!” and “IS MODERN MEDICINE FOUNDED ON ERROR?”

In the same way, a surprising number of combox atheists take seriously the proposition that Jesus Never Existed and similar quack theories that even quacks like Bart Ehrman roll their eyes at. And it’s all done in that same tone of lofty superiority that renders the stupid impenetrable to the blandishments of common sense. One’s mouth opens and closes and no words come out because you don’t even know where to start. It’s like the proposition that Julius Caesar’s existence was a huge hoax or that Shakespeare was really somebody else of the same name. Never does the wisdom of “Do not cast your pearls before swine” suddenly stand out in such sharp relief than when I encounter such smug folly as the Jesus Never Existed stupidity. How Leah endures it I simply don’t know, but I’m impressed that she can.

Uncategorized

Quacks and Cranks

Previous Post

June 19, 2012

The Poisonous Fruit of Michael Voris' Work

Next Post

June 19, 2012 I am sinking our family's last penny...

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz