Denialism

I've been reading this book, Denialism, by Michael Specter. I saw him on the Daily Show and thought it looked interesting. First off, the guy is a science and technology writer, so it's not an easy read. It is interesting though. I've read 3 chapters so far (a chapter is like 40-50 pages). We all know I'm not big on organics and I vaccinate my children. The book is basically about how fear of the unknown and irrational thinking is hindering critical progress.

I've finished the chapter on immunizations. I guess if I had an autistic child, it would be nice to have something tangible to blame, but in truth time and money would be better spent in promising research to find a treatment or cure than spent in lawsuits trying to find something to blame.

I've also finished the chapter on organics and natural foods. Since we all know how I feel about organics, I'll leave you with just two thought. It's impossible to guess how many doses of genetically engineered food Americans have eaten, but it is possible to know how many of those got sick from it: zero. Thousands of people die from taking aspirin and hundreds have drowned in their bathtubs, yet aspirin sales aren't suffering and people still bathe. People also have no problem with genetically engineered medical treatments, but when it comes to food that's a no no.

Since it isn't an easy read, I was going to skip the chapter called Era of Echinacea, but I think it has been the most interesting thus far. It's basically that there has been no evidence that vitamins, supplements, etc. do any good and are actually more likely to do harm. In a country where over-eating is killing us, it's not that we aren't getting nutrients in our diet. So basically there is no miracle cure-all and we're back to diet and exercise. Darn huh? It also mentioned the millions of dollars of research money that has been wasted to test these dead ends, knowing full well from the start that the research was likely to show nothing.

The chapter I've started now is on race, which is a topic nobody wants to touch. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I'll leave you with this thought. I read this somewhere, but can't remember where. Shouldn't we teach our children to embrace and understand our differences rather than try to convince them that we are all the same?